ESSAYS ON THE PICTURESQUE. As Compared with the Sublime and the Beautiful, and, on the Use of Studying Pictures, for the Purpose of Improving Real Landscape.

Testo inglese. Opera completa in tre volumi. Cm.21,3x12,8. Pg.XXVIII, 402, (2); XXXII, 408; 400. Legature coeve in piena pelle. Doppi tasselli con titoli e fregi decorativi impressi in oro ai dorsi. Cerniere leggermente consunte. Tagli bruniti. Buona edizione ottocentesca dell'opera principale del saggista britannico Uvedale Price (1747 circa – 1829), pubblicata la prima volta nel 1794. Price fu protagonista nel dibattito sulla progettazione del giardino agli inizi del XIX secolo, sostenitore del "picturesque gardening" in opposizione ai seguaci del "landscape gardening". "Price developed his ideas with his close neighbour Richard Payne Knight, whose poem 'The Landscape' was published the same year as Price's Essay delineating his theories on "The Picturesque" as a mode of landscape. Well before Price's Essay or Knight's poem, however, the term pittoresque was used in early 18th century France to refer to a property of being "in the style of a painter". Pope, in his "Letter to Caryll", brought the word into English as "picturesque" in 1712. The term was used by various English authors throughout the 18th century (cf. Oxford English Dictionary 'picturesque') before being described by Bagehot in "Literary Studies" (1879) as "a quality distinct from that of beauty, or sublimity, or grandeur". For Price, the Picturesque was more specifically defined as being located between the Beautiful and the Sublime. In practical application this meant that his preferred mode of landscaping was to retain old trees, rutted paths, and textured slopes, rather than to sweep all these away in the style that had been practised by Lancelot "Capability" Brown. Price contested, for example, the obsession of "The Beautiful" with Classical and natural symmetry, arguing instead for a less formal and more asymmetrical interpretation of nature. Price's ideas led to much debate in artistic and literary circles: they were parodied, for example, by Jane Austen in "Northanger Abbey". Price republished the Essay several times, with additional material, and entered into a public debate with Humphry Repton over the latter's approach to landscape design. He similarly fell out with Payne Knight, whose theories of landscape betrayed a more esoteric attitude" (da Wikipedia). > Budge, "Aesthetics and the Picturesque, 1795-1840", "These books helped start a British equivalent of the European grand tour with tourists rushing into the countryside, sketchbooks in hand, eager to experience this picturesque beauty". Hunt, "The Genius of the Place: The English Landscape Garden 1620-1820", 351, "It was to Price that Knight dedicated and addressed "The Landscape", which appeared a few months before Price's "Essays on the Picturesque". There was much in common between the two friends and they shared an enthusiasm for picturesque gardening and its inspiration from painting". Kruft, "History of Architectural Theory", 538. Lowndes, III, 1962, "In this edition of an ingenious and tasteful work, many parts are entirely new modeled". Codice libreria 163626.