While museums around the world are shuttered due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Apollo’s usual weekly pick of exhibition openings will be replaced by a selection of digital initiatives providing virtual access to art and culture.
There is a wealth of digitised material from the collections of the Morgan Library & Museum available on the institution’s website, including a number of full digital facsimiles of manuscripts and books. One such example is the catalogue commissioned in around 1756 by Jean de Jullienne (1686–1766), a patron of the arts and close friend of Antoine Watteau, documenting his collection of 367 paintings and drawings. The resulting book is far more than simply a record; with its 42 plates showing the walls of Jullienne’s home in Paris hung with framed paintings and drawings, 152 of which are represented in watercolour miniatures, it is an artwork in its own right – and appears now as an 18th-century version of a virtual museum. The catalogue is available to browse and to download on the Morgan’s website.
Preview the project below | View Apollo’s Art Diary here
Frontispiece of the Catalogue des Tableaux de Mr Julienne (c. 1756). Morgan Library & Museum, New York
Pages 45–46 of the catalogue, with watercolour miniatures of paintings by David Teniers, Rosalba Carriera and Salvator Rosa. Morgan Library & Museum, New York
Pages 67–68 of the catalogue, with watercolour miniatures of paintings by Rubens and Rembrandt, among others. Morgan Library & Museum, New York
Pages 69–70 of the catalogue, with watercolour miniatures of paintings by Watteau and Rubens among others. Morgan Library & Museum, New York