Set of thirty-five drawings
This set comprising one hundred and fifty drawings was commissioned to Gabriel Müller and created after engravings by Bernard de Montfaucon, published and annotated in ten volumes entitled “Antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures” (“Antiquity explained and illustrated”) published for the first time in Paris between 1719 and 1724.
Each drawing, of identical size (8 5/8 x 7 in.), was independently slipped in between the blank pages of the album previously mentioned forming pair with other enclosing texts published in 1757. These drawings testified the impact of de Montfaucon’s work in Europe and more particularly in Germany. Words of his profusely acclaimed work in Paris upon his release in 1719 reached the Regent, Philippe II d’Orléans, who demanded that the artist would become an honorary member at the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, even though no seat was vacant within this prestigious institution.
