Didot's Luxury Editions
18th-century printer Pierre Didot produced luxury editions of great works by authors such as Virgil, Horace, Jean Racine, and Jean de La Fontaine. His publications brought the French Neoclassical style to a wider audience and glorified French art and literature as the true heirs of the ancients. Didot hired Jacques-Louis David to illustrate several of his books, and David shared the commissions with two of his most promising students, François Gérard and Anne-Louis Girodet. Girodet's drawing for Didot's edition of Jean Racine's popular play Phèdre (top) shows Phaedra turning away from her husband, Theseus, because she has fallen in love with his son Hippolytus. The staged composition and dramatic gestures show the influence of David. Gérard's drawing for Didot's 1797 edition of Jean de La Fontaine's Les Amours de Psyché et Cupidon (right) shows the moment when Psyche and her family hear the dire prediction that she is fated to marry a fierce serpent. They are unaware that Cupid (far left) is eavesdropping and will intervene on Psyche's behalf. Both the artist and the publisher were extremely proud of Gérard's work; Didot wrote that "it is difficult to desire anything more perfect than the compositions of these drawings." |
