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Pierre ii Mariette or the Mariette dynasty revisited

by

Kristel sMenteK

in the summer of 1717, business was good at the Colonnes d’Hercule, the Mariette family print and bookshop in Paris. in a letter written in July, Jean Mariette told his son Pierre-Jean that more and more clients were visiting the family’s establishment, now that Jean’s acquisition of his father’s stock was becoming widely known : « de jour en jour il vient chez moy des gens de qualité et d’esprit. La reputation de la maison augmente considérablement depuis qu’on a sceu que j’avois le fonds de mon père »1. Jean’s father was Pierre ii (1634-1716) (ill. 1), the second of the four generations of Mariettes who made up what has since become known as the Mariette dynasty of printsellers. in 1717, Pierre-Jean, the dynasty’s most celebrated member today, was en route to vienna, where he would arrange and catalogue Prince eugene of savoy’s extensive print collection, much of it purchased from the Colonnes d’Hercule. This prestigious project consolidated the reputation of the house, and it helped establish Pierre-Jean’s enduring renown as an exemplary connoisseur of the graphic arts. yet neither Pierre-Jean nor the firm itself would have flourished as they did without the essential contribution of Pierre ii. From Pierre ii, himself indebted to his father Pierre i (c. 1603-1657), Jean and Pierre-Jean inherited the stock, expertise and international reputation that brought prestigious clients to their door and facilitated their formation of large print collections for the most illustrious among them. The goal of this article is to examine the legacy of Pierre ii to the younger Mariettes in light of some underutilized and unpublished documentary evidence.

Pierre ii has left relatively few archival traces. From Maxime Préaud’s important study of the Mariettes, we know that Pierre ii was an immensely successful businessman, but as Préaud points out, we know rather little about the specifics of his business2. aside from

1. Jean Mariette to Pierre-Jean Mariette, Paris, July 6, 1717, Louvre, arts graphiques, Bs b10 L3. This letter is part of a collection of unpublished correspondence between Jean and Pierre-Jean, written while the latter was abroad in 1717-1719. The publication of these letters is eagerly awaited.

2. Maxime Préaud, « La dynastie Mariette. de l’espérance aux Colonnes d’hercule », in Catalogues de la collection d’estampes de Jean V, Roi de Portugal, ed. Marie-Thérèse Mandroux-França and Maxime Préaud, Lisbon/Paris, 1996-2003, t. i, p. 331-371. earlier important studies of the Mariettes include roger-armand Weigert, « Le Commerce de la gravure au xviie siècle en France : les deux premiers Mariette et François Langlois, dit Ciartres », in Gazette des beaux-arts, mars 1953, p. 167-188, and robert Froté, « de François Langlois à Pierre ii

540 KristeL sMenteK

ill. 1

François ertinger, Portrait of Pierre II Mariette, black chalk. Paris, Fondation Custodia.

541Pierre ii Mariette, or the Mariette dynasty revisited

the inventory taken in 1664 after the death of his first wife, Madeleine de Collemont, there are no archival records of Pierre ii’s shop in the final years of his activity. his stock is not enumerated in his own probate inventory, because twelve days before his death, the dealer sold his heirs his « fond d’imagerie […] consistant en planches de cuivre, estampes, livres, impressions, tableaux, dessins, presses et autres ustancils dependant dud. commerce sans en rien excepter »3. no more detailed account than this is given of what those plates, prints, books or drawings might have been. The document recording the distribution of Pierre ii’s estate is similarly lacking in detail, this time because the heirs were reluctant to « destroy » their father’s fonds by dividing it. With the agreement of his siblings, Jean Mariette bought out their shares and acquired the totality of their father’s stock4. to piece together what Jean obtained from Pierre ii, both in terms of actual plates and impressions and the less tangible realm of reputation, we must rely on other documentary sources.

The correspondence of Pierre ii’s clients is an especially illuminating source about his business practices. Particularly instructive are the letters exchanged by the dutch states-man and collector Constantin huygens the younger and his brother, the eminent scientist Christiaan huygens while the latter was living in Paris. The letters suggest that by the 1670s a stop at Pierre ii’s shop at l’Espérance was obligatory not only for the latest in French printmaking, but also for the rarest and finest impressions of the old masters5. in May 1679, Constantin sent Christiaan a note introducing its bearer, the collector Philips de Flines. in it, he explicitly singles out Mariette’s shop as a place that de Flines, a discerning print collector, must visit. While there, he was also to make purchases for Constantin :

entre autres choses il faut qu’il voye les estampes de Mariette, chez lequel je le prieray mesme de chercher quelque chose de cette marchandise pour moy. il est fort capable de cela ayant luy mesme une collection considerable de ces choses chez luy6.

What de Flines was to purchase was not specified, but Constantin describes him as « curieux en matiere de peinture d’architecture et de Jardinages », and as such de Flines would have found much at l’Espérance to satisfy his tastes. topographical prints and archi-tectural views by the Perelles, for instance, seem to have been a specialty of the house, along with prints by Jean Lepautre, Jean Marot and others7. Christiaan’s journal shows that he had

Mariette (Étude d’inventaires inédits ou le commerce de l’estampe à Paris, de Callot à Watteau) », in Gazette des beaux-arts, oct. 1983, p. 111-120. see also the fundamental study by Marianne Grivel, Le commerce de l’estampe à Paris au xviie siècle, Geneva, 1986, in which the Mariettes figure prominently.

3. an, Minutier central, étude iii, 426, aug. 2, 1716.4. « [L]ed. partage ne se pouvoit faire commodement et sans detruire led. fonds et que lad. vente par detail

au total leur seroit desavantageuse », an, Minutier central, étude XXii, 427, oct. 8, 1716.5. Pierre ii rented the Colonnes d’Hercule to other businesses until 1691 when he gave it to Jean as an advance on

his inheritance. an, Minutier central, étude Xi, 325, sept. 15, 1691 ; M. Préaud, « La dynastie Mariette… », p. 344.6. Constantin huygens the younger to Christiaan huygens, The hague, May 18, 1679, in Christiaan

huygens, Œuvres complètes, 22 t., The hague, 1888-1950, t. viii, p. 167, no 2172. 7. numerous plates by the Perelles are listed in Madeleine de Collemont’s probate inventory along with

plates by Lepautre, Marot and many others. an, Minutier central, étude CiX, 221, May 12, 1664. nicolas i Langlois, Collemont’s son and Pierre ii’s stepson, would inherit some of the Perelle plates. When Jean Mariette acquired the Langlois family’s stock in 1707, the plates returned to the Mariettes. see M. Préaud, « La dynastie Mariette… », p. 345.

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similar interests. during a trip to Paris in 1661, he purchased ornament prints by Lepautre for 50 livres from Mariette and had noted for future reference that israel silvestre’s series of 12 prints on the Château de ruel was forthcoming next month chez Mariette8. Pierre ii’s prolific publication of prints by and after contemporary French artists would also no doubt have appealed to de Fline’s interests in painting, as they apparently did to Christiaan. The auction catalogue of the latter’s books and prints compiled in 1695 suggests the vari-ety of prints that appealed to educated viewers, a variety Pierre ii was well able to satisfy. Christiaan’s collection included 155 prints by Lepautre, presumably those he purchased at Mariette’s, as well as impressions by the Perelles, silvestre, and nicolas Mignard, and after artists like nicolas Poussin and sébastian Bourdon9. Pierre ii published work by all of these artists ; the younger Mariettes subsequently reprinted some of the plates he had owned, sometimes without changes in the publisher’s address10.

Pierre ii’s shop was also a destination for collectors in search of old master prints. in a letter written to his brother in april 1679 Christiaan recounted the visit he and de Flines had made to Mariette’s shop the previous day. They had viewed Mariette’s « livre de raphael », and were to return the following day to see the works of Giulio Bonasone and others11. Christiaan’s account suggests an ample stock of sixteenth-century italian prints, a stock for which Pierre ii would become renowned. almost 20 years later, La teulière, director of the French academy in rome, claimed that best place to buy rare italian prints was not in italy but at Mariette’s in Paris. in a letter written in 1696 to the marquis de villacerf in Paris, he reported that though he could not find the requested engravings after Giulio romano in rome, they could almost certainly be found in Paris at Mariette’s shop :

J’ay esté une demy journée chés dominico rossi, le plus grand Marchant d’estampes, pour ne pas dire le seul, qui soit à rome. J’ay veu tout ce qu’il avoit de gravé de Jules romain ; je n’ay trouvé que ce petit recueil de sept feuilles, que j’envoye, qui valût la peine d’estre envoyé. Je sçay, cependant, qu’il y a d’autres choses de gravées après les peintures du Palais du Thé, mais c’est un hazard si l’on en rencontre quelque feuille séparée ; l’on trouvera plus facilement à Paris, chez Mariette, ces vieilles estampes12.

8. « 5 Jan. 1661 : Chez Mariette, œuvres du Pautre, qu’il en a pour 50 liv. le livre de ruel d’israel silv. sera achevè dans un mois », in « Journal de Christiaan huygens, Le voyage à Paris et à Londres de 1660-1661 », in C. huygens, Œuvres complètes…, t. XXii, p. 544.

9. « Journal de Christiaan huygens… », facsimile between p. 817-818. Christiaan’s prints included nicolas Mignard’s etchings after annibale Carracci’s paintings in the Camerino Farnese. These were published by Pierre ii, and perhaps republished by his heirs. Mignard’s Farnese plates remained in Pierre-Jean’s possession until 1768. Pierre-François Basan, Catalogue d’une grande quantité de planches gravées, par ou d’après differéns Grands-Maîtres, Paris, 1768, p. 2, no 7 (BnF, imprimés, 8o v36 1480).

10. sometimes the publisher’s address was changed, sometimes it was not, as Marjorie Cohn has shown in the case of plates by sébastian Bourdon and Michel-ange Corneille reprinted by younger Mariettes. see Marjorie Cohn, A Noble Collection. The Spencer Albums of Old Master Prints, Cambridge (Mass.), 1992, p. 22, 24.

11. Christiaan to Constantin huygens, Paris, June 22, 1679, in C. huygens, Œuvres complètes…, t. viii, p. 180-181, no 2178.

12. La teulière to edouard Colbert, marquis de villacerf, rome, april 10, 1696, in Correspondance des Directeurs de l’Académie de France à Rome, ed. Jules J. Guiffrey and anatole de Montaiglon, Paris, 1887-1912, t. ii, p. 219.

543Pierre ii Mariette, or the Mariette dynasty revisited

at the same time Mariette presented his « livre de raphael » to huygens and de Flines, he showed them his « œuvres des Carraches »13. huygens’ account tells us Pierre ii’s stock was organized by designer (raphael, the Carracci) and by printmaker (Bonasone). This organization is substantiated by the Collemont inventory in 1664, and is in accord with collecting practices of the period14. The dutchman’s visit also tells us much about the dealer’s approach to his cli-ents. The presentation of bound albums of desirable prints, and possibly of complete or nearly complete œuvres, would whet the appetites of clients ; at the same time, they demonstrated the dealer’s expertise. The Collemont inventory lists several bound albums. These may be traces of Pierre ii’s collection, or dealer’s stock or a combination of both. one, « ou il y a du Marc anthoine, Carache, et Bonasone », was valued at 400 livres, and another with a « quantité de pressions du Carrache, vannius, Marc anthoine, Barroche et autres » was valued at 300 livres. other, less highly valued albums included one with prints « de Boulogne et sadeler », another with « pressions d’albert en bois et clair obscur », one with « pressions de Lucas », and yet another containing « des petits maitres »15. Whatever the specific functions of the albums were, they are suggestive of the range of prints available for purchase either singly, or perhaps readymade into « livres d’estampes » of the sort purchased by Michel de Bégon, intendant of new rochelle, from Mariette in 169216. Bégon does not specify what the books of prints contained, but they point to the burgeoning phenomenon of dealer-compiled œuvres. in an era of ever-widening interest in print collecting, such œuvres were a ready solution for those lured by the pleasures and art historical knowledge promised by prints but without the stamina of a Michel de Marolles, himself a client of Mariette’s17. as is well known, such readymade collections would become a specialty of the Mariette firm under Jean’s direction in the early eighteenth century.

The huygens correspondence raises the interesting possibility that Pierre ii sold draw-ings. in June 1679, Christiaan reported that « Mariette me dit hier qu’un homme en Flandre luy avoit promis de luy envoier bon nombre de portraits dessinez par van dijck et des meilleurs »18. That Pierre ii divulged such information suggests he thought he had a suitable client. The huygens, however, believed the drawings were the same ones recently stolen from Constantin’s collection. Mariette eventually disclosed that the van dyck sheets were in the hands of the Brussels-based print dealer van Bruge, a name we can add to the network of foreign dealers with whom Pierre ii transacted19.

13. Christiaan to Constantin huygens, Paris, June 22, 1679, in C. huygens, Œuvres complètes…, t. viii, p. 180-181, no 2178.

14. see, for example, Michel de Marolles’s many albums ordered by artist and printmaker discussed in his Catalogue des livres d’estampes et de figures en taille douce, Paris, 1666.

15. an, Minutier central, étude CiX, 221.16. Michel Bégon to esprit Cabart de villermont, rochefort, october 9, 1692, in Georges duplessis,

Un curieux du xviie siècle : Michel Bégon, Paris, 1874, p. 48.17. a document of 1662 described in Collemont’s probate inventory records that Marolles owed Pierre ii

300 livres for prints. see Marianne Grivel, Le commerce de l’estampe à Paris au xviie siècle, Geneva, 1986, p. 209.18. Christiaan to Constantin huygens, Paris, June 22, 1679, in C. huygens, Œuvres complètes…, t. viii,

p. 182, no 2178.19. Christiaan to Constantin huygens, Paris, september 8, 1679, ibid., t. viii, p. 212, no 2191. on

Pierre ii’s international contacts see M. Grivel, Le commerce de l’estampe…, p. 260-261 ; on his contacts in the netherlands see Gerdien Wuestman, « Frederick de Wit et Pierre ii Mariette », in Print Quarterly, t. 14, 1997, p. 311-313 ; and Louvre, arts graphiques, Bs b9 L2.

544 KristeL sMenteK

Books on art were also available at l’Espérance. according to de Flines, at Mariette’s, « on en trouve tousjours de cette matiere et […] sa boutique en est toujours garnie », and it was at Mariette’s that Christiaan was instructed to buy both French and italian art books for his brother20. Christiaan records that Pierre ii had available a « catalogue de livres trai-tans de la peinture »21. to my knowledge, no such catalogue is known – perhaps it was a manuscript list – but its existence suggests that Pierre handled enough volume to merit a specialized stocklist of art books. it also suggests a healthy demand for books on art by the 1670s, a demand that would only increase by the beginning of the eighteenth century and one that the younger Mariettes would make into a specialty of their publishing business22.

if clients found the prints or books they sought at Mariette’s, they would have had to pay dearly for them. astonishment, and occasionally anger, at his prices are recurring themes in the correspondence of potential buyers. Their reactions suggest Pierre ii had little competition and consequently priced his old master prints at the top end of what the market would bear. Constantin huygens was taken aback by Pierre ii’s charges and wondered how he could sustain a successful business. They were so high, Constantin reported, that they made him feel as though the substantial sums he had recently paid to Peter Lely for prints had, in fact, been a good deal :

J’ay eu une lettre de luy [de Flines] du 30 juin, dedans laquelle il me specifie le prix de quelques estampes du sr. Mariette lequel me semble fort extraordinaire et je voudrois scavoir si a de semblables prix il en fait grand debit. À ce compte la j’ay eu a bon marché les taille-douces que je croyois avoir achepté fort cher de Lely a Londres23.

in a subsequent note, Constantin referred again to Mariette’s prices and described the dealer as ridiculous because of them and because of the claims he made about his holdings : « Cet homme la est ridicule et parle comme s’il n’y avoit que luy au monde qui en eust de bonnes »24. still later, and using less savory language, Christiaan relayed that Mariette « est renommé pour estre un vray Juif en ce qui regarde son traficq », a characterization repeated in 1698 by daniel Cronström, the swedish resident at the French court, in a letter to nicodemus tessin :

J’aurois bien pu achever l’amplette de tous vos livres et estampes cette fois cy à quelques uns près qui sont presque introuvables. Mais Langlois, Mariette et quelques autres qui ramassent des estampes et livres des arts rares les revendent comme des juifs25.

20. Christiaan to Constantin huygens, Paris, september 8, 1679, in C. huygens, Œuvres complètes…, t. viii, p. 296, no 2226.

21. Christiaan to Constantin huygens, Paris, august 30, 1680, ibid., t. viii, p. 297, no 2227.22. i base this claim on the book catalogues published by Jean and especially by Pierre-Jean. Both men

published a variety of books, ranging from breviaries to treatises on dental surgery, but, as Pierre-Jean successive catalogues show particularly well, books on art become an increasingly significant aspect of the firm’s production.

23. Constantin to Christiaan huygens, n. p., July 13, 1679, ibid., t. viii, p. 187, no 2181. 24. Constantin to Christiaan huygens, dieren, august 8, 1679, ibid., t. viii, p. 192, no 2183.25. Christiaan to Constantin huygens, Paris, august 18, 1679, ibid., t. viii, p. 201, no 2187. daniel

Cronström to nicodemus tessin, Paris, august 22/12, 1698, in Les relations artistiques entre la France et la Suède, 1693-1718. Nicodème Tessin le jeune et Daniel Cronström : correspondance (extraits), ed. roger-armand Weigert and Carl hernmarck, stockholm, 1964, p. 202.

545Pierre ii Mariette, or the Mariette dynasty revisited

somewhat later the frustrated Cronström complained that Langlois and Mariette sold everything at double the price, a criticism that implies he could not easily buy what he wanted elsewhere in Paris. it also suggests that nicolas i Langlois, Pierre ii’s stepson, and Pierre ii himself were colluding in their pricing of rare prints and art books26. a comment made by nicodemus tessin indicates just how high Mariette’s prices were. in 1716, he reported that Mariette had charged the astonishing sum of 1 000 livres for an impression of Marcantonio’s engraving of raphael’s Galatea27. Which of the Mariettes is being referred to in these later letters is not entirely clear. Pierre ii continued to sell prints until shortly before his death ; he thus worked concurrently for a time with Jean who was in business for himself by 1691 and possibly as early as 168528. Given what is known of Jean’s stock before his acquisition of Pierre ii’s fonds, however, i’m inclined to believe tessin and Cronström were referring to the elder Mariette.

Prints like the Galatea are suggestive of the scope and value of the Mariette holdings. scattered references in Pierre-Jean’s manuscript notes indicate his inheritance was spectacu-lar indeed. an inventory of prints once in Pierre ii’s possession and copied by Pierre-Jean itemizes several prints by Marcantonio, often in more than one impression. The undated list includes « 9 les innocents sans chicot de raph. M. ant. en travers » ; « 9 st. Laurent Bacius Bandinelli. Marc antoine », « 8 Parnasse de raphael. Marc. ant. en travers », « 4 Galathée raph. M ant. en hauteur », among many others29. Whether this list records stock or the extensive print collection put together by Pierre ii, or some combination of both, is unclear. a comment made by Pierre-Jean in 1718 when he met the venetian collector Zaccario sagredo indicates that Pierre ii often acquired more than one impression of a print for his collection if the quality was good. Pierre-Jean described sagredo as « le vray copie de mon grand Pere », because of his desire to have only the most beautiful, rare and well-printed impressions and to acquire multiple copies of the same print if they were in good condition30. Pierre ii’s collection was thus not only of the highest quality, but also, again according to Pierre-Jean, exhaustive :

26. Cronström to tessin, Paris, april 14/24, 1699, ibid., p. 226. a few years earlier, in 1692, Michel Bégon noted that he would be very pleased with the « livres d’estampes » from Mariette’s, if only they had been less costly. see n. 16. on nicolas i Langlois’s business, see M. Grivel, Le commerce de l’estampe…, p. 178-181.

27. nicodemus tessin to Carl Gustav tessin, stockholm, aug. 28, 1716, in nicodemus tessin the younger, Catalogue des livres, estampes et desseins du cabinet des beaux arts, & des sciences appartenant au Baron Tessin, stockholm, 1712, facsimile ed. with commentary by Per Bjurström and Mårten snickare, stokholm, 2000, p. 266. This price is so high – old master paintings rarely sold for 1000 livres at this time – that one wonders if this is an error or an exaggeration.

28. Jean-dominique Mellot and Élisabeth Queval, Répertoire d’imprimeurs / libraires (xvie-xviiie siècle) : état en 1995, Paris, 1997, p. 418.

29. « estat des Pieces de Marc antoine dressé par P. Mariette mon grand pere, sur celles qui etoient alors en sa possession » ; see Pierre-Jean Mariette, « notes Manuscrites sur les peintres et les graveurs », BnF, estampes, rés. ya 2-4, t. vii.

30. Pierre-Jean to Jean Mariette, venice, december 30, 1718, Louvre, arts graphiques, Bs b9 L42. on sagredo’s print collection see Giorgio Marini, « “The largest collection of prints of any man in europe”. note sulle stampe della raccolta sagredo », in Il Collezionismo a Venezia e nel Veneto ai tempi della Serenissima, ed. Bernard aikema, rosella Lauber and Max seidel, venice, 2005, p. 259-274.

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Le père et l’ayeul [de Jean Mariette] […] ont fait dans leur temps un commerce fort consi-dérable d’estampes ; le premier [Pierre ii] surtout en avoit rassemblé un très-grand nombre de tous les maîtres et de tous les pays, et avec beaucoup de choix, car il étoit en réputation de s’y connoître parfaittement31.

according to Jean, it was the fruit of multiple purchases at home and abroad : « Je scavais bien que la collection que mon pere en a faitte etoit la plus belle qu’il y eut au monde aussi est elle composée de tous les plus fameux cabinets de Paris et des pays etrangers »32. Pierre-Jean’s manuscript notes and his correspondence with his father are peppered with references to Pierre ii’s collection. in a letter written from vienna, for example, Pierre-Jean mentioned a portrait of innocent iX (by agostino Carracci) that « il me semble avoir veu celuy la dans l’œuvre du Carrache de mon grand pere », and his notes include such lists as an « extrait de l’œuvre desdits sieurs [Poilly] qu’a mon grand père en 1714 »33. Comments like this make evident the degree to which the collection was a form of inherited knowledge and thus the foundation of the younger Mariettes’ own claims to expertise.

The inheritance from Pierre ii also provided Jean with a wealth of new stock. a list of plates and impressions appended to Jean’s marriage contract in 1693 gives a glimpse of his inventory before 1716. it pales in comparison to what we know of Pierre ii’s business. Jean was a printmaker, and in 1693 the majority of the copperplates he owned were by his own hand. With the exception of impressions by Cornelis Cort and « l’œuvre de raphael, Jules romain, Parmesan, Polidor &c. contenant 150 pieces ou environ », valued at 100 livres, Jean’s stock of prints was largely composed of work by seventeenth-century artists from France, italy, Flanders and the netherlands, along with portraits and miscellaneous prints of devotional subjects, saints, landscapes, ornaments and animals34. appraised at 5 000 livres, Jean’s stock of plates and impressions is much less substantial than that jointly owned by his father and Madeleine de Collement almost 30 years earlier. in 1664, their plates and impressions were valued at just over 65,25 livres. some of this stock was divided among the couple’s heirs – the part that reverted to nicolas i Langlois eventually passed into Jean’s hands in 1707 – but from the document we can glean some sense of Jean’s inheritance from his father35. included in the lengthy listings of copperplates, bound albums, “pressions” of Callot, stefano della Bella, and numer-ous other seventeenth-century artists, were thousands of loose prints by dürer, Kilian, Lucas Cranach, agostino veneziano, Guilio romano, Étienne delaune and Theodor de Bry and countless other old masters36.

31. Pierre-Jean Mariette, Abecedario de Pierre-Jean Mariette et autres notes inédites de cet amateur sur les arts et les artistes, ed. Philippe de Chennevières and anatole de Montaiglon, 6 t., Paris, 1851-1860, t. iii, p. 264.

32. Jean to Pierre-Jean Mariette, Paris, october 22, 1717, Louvre, arts graphiques, Bs b10 L7.33. Pierre-Jean to Jean Mariette, vienna, n. d., Louvre, arts graphiques, Bs b9 L06 ; P.-J. Mariette,

Abecedario…, t. iv, p. 188, n. 1.34. « estat des planches de cuivre gravées et des estampes apartenantes au sr. Jean Mariette en 1693 »,

appended to an, Minutier central, étude XLiX, 400, February 2, 1693  ; M. Préaud, « La dynastie Mariette… », p. 344.

35. M. Préaud, « La dynastie Mariette… », p. 345. 36. an, Minutier central, étude CiX, 221.

547Pierre ii Mariette, or the Mariette dynasty revisited

With the acquisition of Pierre ii’s stock and collection, the younger Mariettes had sud-denly gained a much more diverse and vastly more numerous selection of prints. They had also gained a reputation. expertise is intimately related to the quality and breadth of one’s stock and personal collection ; the dealer’s holdings are the concrete manifestations of his command of the material, the breadth of his knowledge, and his evaluative skill. With their inheritance from Pierre ii, the younger Mariettes obtained the materials and the accumulation of knowledge vital to a successful enterprise and essential to the compilation of readymade collections that would become the firm’s signature product. as Jean noted, as the news of this acquisition spread, it attracted more and more clients to the Colonnes d’Hercule. The most famous among them were Prince eugene for the compilation of whose over 300 albums Pierre ii’s stock was crucial, and King João v of Portugal, whose commission of 150 albums followed in 1724. other customers included the owners of the spencer albums, the duc de Mortemart, and gentlemen from russia and england37. news of the inheritance also brought business from international dealers and more stock. Thus Picart, presumably Bernard Picart, described by Pierre-Jean in a letter to Jean from amsterdam, as the best of the dutch dealers, « seroit ravy d’avoir correspondence avec vous & qu’à present que vous aviez le fonds de mon grand pere si vous vouliez luy faire un detail de ce qui le compose il en prendroit plusieurs choses en change »38.

By 1720, Paris was the center of the european print trade and the younger Mariettes were firmly established at its heart39. They were well aware of the authority that an estab-lished house commanded, and they referred to the long history of the firm in their inter-actions with clients. When the countess of Pomfret visited the Mariettes in 1739, she described them as a « family [who] for three generations have made it their business to collect all that is curious in that way »40. That was knowledge she must have gained directly from Jean, the « old man » with whom she interacted. Pierre-Jean repeatedly grounded his own credentials as a connoisseur by reference to his inheritance : « je suis […] petit fils et arrière petit fils de deux des meilleurs connoisseurs qu’il y ait eu pour les estampes. J’ai hérité d’un très beau cabinet d’estampes qu’ils s’étoient formés »41. it was also a heritage whose memory Pierre-Jean sought to preserve for posterity. in the last edition of Germain Brice’s guide to Paris, edited by Pierre-Jean and published in 1752, two years after the business was sold and ten years after his father died, one reads that, « le seul magazin de

37. Catalogues de la collection d’estampes de Jean V…  ; M. Cohn, A Noble Collection…  ; and antony Griffiths and Craig hartley, « The print collection of the duc de Mortemart », in Print Quarterly, t. 11, 1994, p. 107-116. see also achim Gnann, Parmigianino und sein Kreis. Druckgraphik aus der Sammlung Baselitz, ostfildern, 2008, for discussion of an album of Parmigianino prints with a spencer family provenance that may have been compiled by the Mariettes. Jean mentions sales to a russian client and a « Milord harold » in letters sent to his son in June and July 1717. see Louvre, arts graphiques, Bs b10 L01, L02, and L03.

38. Pierre-Jean to Jean Mariette, amsterdam, september 17, 1717, Louvre, arts graphiques, Bs b9 L3.39. in 1720, the english artist George vertue described Paris as « that City being the great mart for prints.

They from thence do disperse to all part of europe ». vertue notebooks, quoted in timothy Clayton, The English Print, 1688-1802, new haven/London, 1997, p. 46.

40. Correspondence between Frances, Countess of Hartford and Henriette Louisa, Countess of Pomfret, between the Years 1738 and 1741, London, 1806, t. i, p. 83.

41. Pierre-Jean Mariette to antonio Francesco Gori, september 28, 1747, in eugène Müntz, Lettres inédites de savants français a leurs confrères ou amis d’Italie, xviie-xixe siècle, Le Puy, 1882, p. 11.

548 KristeL sMenteK

Jean Mariette, qui a succedé à son pere & à son aïeul, dans le commerce d’estampes qu’ils sont fait pendant très long-tems avec réputation, fournira tout ce que l’italie, la Flandre, la hollande, l’allemagne & les autres païs ont produit en tout genre, de plus rare et de plus parfait depuis l’invention de la Gravure, jusqu’à nos jours »42.

42. Germain Brice, Description de la ville de Paris et de tout ce qu’elle contient de plus remarquable, Paris, 1752, reprint, Geneva/Paris, 1971, t. iii, p. 10.

L’estampe au Grand Siècle est un recueil d’études dédié à Maxime Préaud, conservateur général chargé de la Réserve du département des Estampes et de la Photographie de la Bibliothèque nationale de France, et consacré à son terrain de prédilection, la gravure européenne au xviie siècle. Les contributions de ses émules et amis, élèves et confrères illustrent la richesse du sujet par une grande diversité d’approches sur les thèmes les plus variés : armoiries, affiches, frontispices et almanachs, amateurs et collectionneurs, architectes, orfèvres, peintres, dessinateurs et graveurs, marchands et éditeurs, ateliers et académies, invention et interprétation, en France, comme en Flandres, en Hollande et en Italie.