Giovanni Battista Cipriani and William Faithorne the elder - Portrait of John Milton in Old Age The Poetical Works of John Milton

Portrait of John Milton in Old Age (The Poetical Works of John Milton)

Giovanni Battista Cipriani's original etching, "Portrait of John Milton in Old Age", is one of four portrayals of John Milton (British, 1608 - 1674) the artist etched in 1760, as a boy, a young man, in old age, and blind, in his last years, during this time. Giovanni Cipriani's design was based upon a drawing by William Faithorne the Elder. The excerpt underneath the portrait is from Milton’s "Paradise Lost", Book Seven: Portrait of John Milton in Old Age is a fine, original example of the eighteenth century art created by the Italian / British artist, Giovanni Battista Cipriani. It was commissioned by Thomas Hollis (1720-1774) for use in his edition of John Toland's Life of Milton published in 1761. The plate was later re-issued in 1780 for Memoirs of Thomas Hollis by Francis Blackburne. According to Francis Blackburne; "The prints were engraved at the expense of Mr. Hollis, and presented in sets to his friends, were of Edmund Ludlow; John Milton, the boy; the same at twenty-one years of age; the same from a bust in plaster; the same from a crayon of Toland's John Milton victorious of Salmasus; Algernon Sydney; Andrew Marvell; John Locke, John Milton, Thomas Hollis, Dr. John Wallis: all by Cipriani.", Pg 503. Then in 1794, plate was re-issued in by John and Josiah Boydell & G. Nicol for the first edition of The Poetical Works of John Milton. This original Giovanni Battista Cipriani is printed upon eighteenth century hand-made, laid paper and with full margins as published in London for the 1794 Boydell edition.

Original Etching by the Italian / British artist, Giovanni Battista Cipriani after a design by William Faithorne the elder.

Portrait of John Milton in Old Age

View other Original works of art by Giovanni Battista Cipriani.

Giovanni Battista Cipriani (Florence, Italy, 1727 - London (Hammersmith), 1785)
#	Image	Title & Artist	Medium	Date	Publisher	-
01.-		Love and Fortune by Francesco Bartolozzi designed by Giovanni Battista Cipriani	Original Hand-Coloured Etching & Stipple Engraving	1800	Rudolph Ackermann, London	Sold
02.-		Portrait of John Milton as a Child by Giovanni Battista Cipriani	Original Etching	1760	Thomas Hollis (J. & J. Boydell & G. Nicol Edition, 1794)
03.-		Portrait of John Milton as a Young Man by Giovanni Battista Cipriani	Original Etching	1760	Thomas Hollis (J. & J. Boydell & G. Nicol Edition, 1794)
04.-		Portrait of John Milton in Old Age by Giovanni Battista Cipriani	Original Etching	1760	Thomas Hollis (J. & J. Boydell & G. Nicol Edition, 1794)

View other original engravings published by John and Josiah Boydell for "The Poetical Works of John Milton".

The Poetical Works of John Milton
Designed by Richard Westall
#	Image	Title & Engraver	Engraver Info	Medium	Date	-
01.-		Comus: Sabrina Releasing the Lady from her Spell by John Ogborne	John Ogborne (Chelmsford, 1755 - London, 1837)	Original Stipple Engraving 'First Edition Impression	1797	Available
02.-	-	Comus: The Forest Scene by Benjamin Smith	Benjamin Smith (London, 1754 - 1833)	Original Stipple Engraving 'First Edition Impression	1797	--
03.-	-	Comus: The Temptation Scene by Benjamin Smith	Benjamin Smith (London, 1754 - 1833) & Benjamin Duterrau (1767 - 1851)	Original Stipple Engraving 'First Edition Impression	1797	--
04.-	-	Elegia Quinta by Thomas Kirk	Thomas Kirk (London, Died, 1797)	Original Stipple Engraving 'First Edition Impression	1797	--
05.-		Hymn to the Nativity by Jean Pierre Simon	Jean Pierre Simon, 'John Peter Simon' (London, 1750 - Paris, c. 1810)	Original Stipple Engraving 'First Edition Impression	1797	Available
06.-	-	Il Penseroso by John Ogborne	John Ogborne (Chelmsford, 1755 - London, 1837)	Original Stipple Engraving 'First Edition Impression	1797	--
07.-		On the Death of a Fair Infant by Benjamin Smith	Benjamin Smith (London, 1754 - 1833)	Original Stipple Engraving 'First Edition Impression	1794	Available
08.-	-	L'Allegro by Thomas Kirk	Thomas Kirk (London, Died, 1797)	Original Stipple Engraving 'First Edition Impression	1797	--
09.-		Lycidas (A poem by John Milton), by Benjamin Smith	Benjamin Smith (London, 1754 - 1833)	Original Stipple Engraving 'First Edition Impression	1797	Available
10.-	-	Milton and his two Daughters by Benjamin Smith	Benjamin Smith (London, 1754 - 1833)	Original Stipple Engraving 'First Edition Impression	1797	--
11.-		Paradise Lost: Adam and Eve Banished from Paradise by Benjamin Smith	Benjamin Smith (London, 1754 - 1833)	Original Stipple Engraving 'First Edition Impression	1795	Available
12.-		Paradise Lost: Adam Awakening Eve by Richard Earlom	Richard Earlom (London, 1743 - 1822)	Original Stipple Engraving 'First Edition Impression	1794	Sold
13.-		Paradise Lost: Death Leaving the Gates of Hell for the World of Man by John Ogborne	John Ogborne (Chelmsford, 1755 - London, 1837)	Original Stipple Engraving 'First Edition Impression	1795	Available
14.-		Paradise Lost: Eve in the Garden of Eden by Richard Earlom	Richard Earlom (London, 1743 - 1822)	Original Stipple Engraving 'First Edition Impression	1795	Sold
15.-		Paradise Lost: Messiah Routs Satan and his Angels by Luigi Schiavonetti	Luigi Schiavonetti (Bassano, Italy, 1765 - London, 1810)	Original Stipple Engraving 'First Edition Impression	1794	Sold
16.-		Paradise Lost: Satan Alarmed by Jean Pierre Simon	Jean Pierre Simon, 'John Peter Simon' (London, 1750 - Paris, c. 1810)	Original Stipple Engraving 'First Edition Impression	1794	Available
17.-	-	Paradise Lost: Satan at the Gates of Hell by Jean Pierre Simon	Jean Pierre Simon, 'John Peter Simon' (London, 1750 - Paris, c. 1810)	Original Stipple Engraving 'First Edition Impression	1794	--
18.-	-	Paradise Lost: Satan Awakening His Legions by Jean Pierre Simon	Jean Pierre Simon, 'John Peter Simon' (London, 1750 - Paris, c. 1810)	Original Stipple Engraving 'First Edition Impression	1794	--
19.-		Paradise Lost: The Angel Raphael Relates The Story of Creation to Adam and Eve by Thomas Kirk	Thomas Kirk (London, Died, 1797)	Original Stipple Engraving 'First Edition Impression	1795	Sold
20.-		Paradise Lost: The Temptation of Eve by Thomas Kirk	Thomas Kirk (London, Died, 1797)	Original Stipple Engraving 'First Edition Impression	1795	Sold
21.-		Paradise Regained: Christ and Satan Dispute the Value of Earthly Glory. by William Satchwell Leney	William Satchwell Leney (London, 1769 - Longue Pointe (Montreal), Canada, 1831)	Original Stipple Engraving 'First Edition Impression	1795	Available
22.-		Paradise Regained: Christ in the Wilderness by Moses Haughton Junior	Moses Haughton, Junior (Wednesbury, Staffordshire, c. 1772 - London, 1848)	Original Stipple Engraving 'First Edition Impression	1795	Available
23.-		Paradise Regained: The Fall of Satan by Benjamin Smith	Benjamin Smith (London, 1754 - 1833)	Original Stipple Engraving 'First Edition Impression	1795	Available

Portraits of John Milton (England, 1608 - 1674)
#	Image	Title & Artist	Artist Info	Medium	Publisher	Date	-
01.-		John Milton, Age 21 by William Nelson Gardiner	William Nelson Gardiner (Dublin, 1766 - London, 1814)	Original Stipple Engraving and Etching	John and Josiah Boydell & George Nicol, London	1794	Sold
02.-		John Milton, Age 62 by William Nelson Gardiner	William Nelson Gardiner (Dublin, 1766 - London, 1814)	Original Stipple Engraving and Etching	John and Josiah Boydell & George Nicol, London	1794
03.-		Portrait of John Milton as a Child by Giovanni Battista Cipriani	Giovanni Battista Cipriani (Florence, Italy, 1727 - London (Hammersmith), 1785)	Original Etching	Thomas Hollis (J. & J. Boydell & G. Nicol Edition, 1794)	1760
04.-		Portrait of John Milton as a Young Man by Giovanni Battista Cipriani	Giovanni Battista Cipriani (Florence, Italy, 1727 - London (Hammersmith), 1785)	Original Etching	Thomas Hollis (J. & J. Boydell & G. Nicol Edition, 1794)	1760
05.-		Portrait of John Milton in Old Age by Giovanni Battista Cipriani	Giovanni Battista Cipriani (Florence, Italy, 1727 - London (Hammersmith), 1785)	Original Etching	Thomas Hollis (J. & J. Boydell & G. Nicol Edition, 1794)	1760
06.-		Portion of a Shield (John Milton dictating his epic poem, "Paradise Lost", to his daughter.) by John Alfred Vinter	John Alfred Vinter (London, 1828 - 1905)	Original Lithograph	Day & Son, London	1852

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Title:	Portrait of John Milton in Old Age
Etcher:	Cipriani, Giovanni Battista (Florence, Italy, 1727 - London (Hammersmith), 1785)
Designer	Faithorne, William (London, 1616 - 1691)
Date:	c. 1760
Medium:	Original Etching
Publisher	Thomas Hollis (J. & J. Boydell & G. Nicol Edition, 1794)
Source:	The Poetical Works of John Milton
Note:	Giovanni Battista Cipriani: In many ways Giovanni Battista Cipriani is as important to the development of British graphic art of the latter eighteenth century as his fellow Italian contemporary, Francesco Bartolozzi. Cipriani was a pupil with Bartolozzi at the art school of Ignatius Hugford, in Florence. In 1750 he went to Rome to complete his education. He then returned to Florence and painted commissioned works for the convent of Santa Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi. Cipriani came to England in 1755. Several years later his childhood companion, Bartolozzi, arrived in London and the two artists began producing many great collaborative works of art which Giovanni Battista Cipriani designed and Bartolozzi and pupils engraved.
	G. B. Cipriani also developed a considerable reputation as a painter and archivist. In this latter category he restored valuable paintings and murals by Rubens and Varrio. In 1768 he became a founding member of the Royal Academy and designed that institution’s diploma. Giovanni Battista Cipriani died in Hammersmith in 1785 and was buried in Chelsea. There, a monument to his memory was designed and erected by Francesco Bartolozzi.
	Known mainly for his fine drawings and paintings, Cipriani etched only a handful of plates. This original etching was drawn and etched by Giovanni Battista Cipriani based upon a pastel drawing then in the possession of Mess. Tonson, Booksellers in the Strand, London.
	William Faithorne: A British artist, William Faithorne the elder studied painting and engraving in London under Robert Peake. Peake was a staunch supporter of the ill fated King Charles the First and, when Civil War broke out, both William Faithorne and his master offered their services to the King. Faithorne was a member of the Royal Garrison and fought at the siege of Basing House (1643-1645). After the surrender he was imprisoned but was released two years later at the insistence of his friends and on the condition that he leave the country. For the following three years, William Faithorne lived and worked in Paris where he became acquainted with the greatest of French engravers, Robert Nanteuil. His contact with Nanteuil and Paris' other great masters of portrait engraving enabled him to develop and refine his own techniques.
	In 1650, William Faithorne was granted a reprieve from his exile. He returned to London and began a successful career as both a leading engraver and a printseller. With the exception of a handful of late portraits he retired from his profession around 1680. William Faithorne rightly dominates English 17th century engraving. Some of his famous portraits are among the best in the history of the art of engraving
	John Milton (British, 1608 - 1674): John Milton is considered one of England's most significant poets. He created such masterworks as "Paradise Lost", "Samson Agonistes" and "Comus". Milton was first admitted to St. Paul's School and at the age of fifteen, he entered Christ's College with the intention of becoming a priest in the Church of England, a vocation he later rejected. According to the Poetical works of John Milton edited by David Masson, M.A. LL.D., Professor of Rhetoric and English literature in the University of Edinburgh, Volume 1, published by Macmillan and Co., New York 1890, Milton wrote various poems in 1626, such as Elegia Prima, Elegia Tertia, Elegia Secunda, and continued this set with Elegia Quarta (1627), Elegia Quinta (1627), Elegia Septima (1828) , and others. in 1626, two years before receiving his bachelor of arts and master of arts degrees, Milton wrote his first major English poem, On the Death of a Fair Infant, Dying of the Cough. The poem relates to the death of his infant sister's death. On the Morning of Christ's Nativity, was written in 1629. John Milton left Cambridge University in 1632 and that same year, he composed the finest and most classic of his minor English poems. L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, followed by Arcades (1633), Comus (1634), first published under the title, A Masque, Presented at Ludlow Castle, and Lycidas in (1637) written after the death of his former fellow collegian at Cambridge, and the rebel Edward King. By 1952, Milton was totally blind. Inspired by the biblical story of the Creation, the fall of Adam and Eve, the rebellion of Satan against God and Satan cast out of heaven, Milton had his great epic, Paradise Lost published in 1667, a masterpiece which tells of the fall of Satan angels, and that of Adam and Eve, etc. In 1671, a continuation to Milton's last great work, a shorter epic and supplement to Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, which tells of Satan's temptation of Christ in the desert and the rejection by Jesus of Satan's temptation. John Milton wrote a few more works before his death, they include, Samson Agonistes which is believed to go back to the 1640's or may be one of his last works, Art of Logic (1672), Of True Religion (1673), and the year he died, 1674, he wrote Epistolae Familiares.
	At the end of the 18th century, John Milton, was honored by John Boydell with The Poetical Works of John Milton, published in three parts, 1794, 1795 and 1797. Sparing no expense, Boydell commissioned George Romney to design a portrait plate and Richard Westall to design images illustrating each part of "Paradise Lost" and "Paradise Regained" as well as the more famous individual poems. The engravers included Luigi Schiavonetti, Richard Earlom, Charles Bestland, Thomas Kirk, J. P. Simon, Benjamin Smith, Moses Haughton, Dutterau and John Ogborne. Boydell also commissioned William Nelson Gardiner to create the various portraits of John Milton at different stages of his life, John Milton, Age 21 and John Milton, Age 62 are two of the MIlton portraits Gardinier created for Boydell. Giovanni Battista Cipriani's four portraits of John Milton (British, 1608 - 1674) at various stages of his life etched that were originally commissioned by Thomas Hollis (1720-1774) for use in his 1761 edition of John Toland's Life of Milton were also included in the first edition of J. & J. Boydell & G. Nicol's, The Poetical Works of John Milton, published in 1794.
	The excerpt underneath this original Giovanni Battista Cipriani etching reads; "John Milton "Drawn and etched MDCCLX by G. B. Cipriani, A Tuscan at the Desire of Thomas Hollis F. R. AND A.SS. from a portrait in crayons now in the possession of Mess. Tonson Booksellers in the Strand London ______ I Sing with mortal voice unchang’d To hoarce or mute, though fall’n on evil dayes, On evil dayes though fall’n, and evil tongues; In darkness, and with dangers compast round, And solitude; ______"
	Thomas Hollis (1720-1774): Thomas Hollis was a libertarian writer, bibliophile, a propagandist for liberty, a radical Whiggism, as well as a patron of the arts. He sponsored many “Liberty Prints’during his lifetime, such as the portraits of such famous literary men as, John Milton, Andrew Marvell, Algernon Sidney, Edmund Ludlow and John Locke. The four etched portraits depicting John Milton at various stages of life originally appeared in John Toland's Life of Milton in 1761 and later republished in Francis Blackburne's Memoirs of Thomas Hollis (J. Nicholls, London, 1780). Hollis practiced law from 1740 to 1748. While in Europe, it is said he socialized with French philosophers and Italian painters such as Canaletto and Piranesi. His main concern, an interest that consumed his life was to protect and advance English liberty, which he accomplished by circulating books on government. In 1754, Thomas Hollis began to reprint and distribute literature literature from the seventeenth century, including works such as tracts by Marchmont Nedham, Henry Neville, and Philip Sidney, John Lock's Two Treatises of Government & John Toland’s Life of Milton, which is where this original etching of John Milton in old age first appeared.
Edition:	Portrait of John Milton in Old Age was originally commissioned by Thomas Hollis (1720-1774) for use in his edition of John Toland's Life of Milton published in 1761. The plate was later re-issued in 1780 for Memoirs of Thomas Hollis by Francis Blackburne, London, J. Nicholls. The National Portrait Gallery, London, contains a 1780 second impression of the Francis Blackburne edition in their collection. Reference Collection NPG D30111. The National Trust Collections, Contains an impression in their collection, Inventory Number 136970. The British Museum contains a 1761 first published impression of Portrait of John Milton in Old Age in their collection, Museum Number: P,4.178. The British Museum also has a portrait of Milton in old age etched by William Nelson Gardiner, Registration number 1895,0617.481. However, the portrait is not the same as G. B. Cipriani's portrait of Milton originally created for John Toland's Life of Milton published in 1761, facing slightly right surrounded by an oval wreath with the Liberty Bell centered at the bottom, W. N. Gardiner's portrait is displayed within a simple oval frame and facing slightly left, lettered with the title by "Aetat 62", and production detail, Vertue delint / W. N. Gardiner Sculpt / From the original drawing by Vertue in the collection of Thos Brand Hollis Esqr at the Hyde Essex / Published June 4 1794 by John and Josiah Boydell & Geo. Nicol. In 1794, the four Milton portrait plates by Giovanni Battista Cipriani that were originally commissioned by Thomas Hollis for use in his edition of John Toland's 1761 Life of Milton were re-issued by John and Josiah Boydell & G. Nicol for the first edition of The Poetical Works of John Milton. Boydell also included the Cipriani portraits of Algernon Sydney, Andrew Marvelas and Edmund Ludlow, as well as two of William Nelson Gardiner's portraits, John Milton, Age 21 and John Milton, Age 62. "The Memoirs of Thomas Hollis, Volume 1 by Francis Blackburne states; "The prints which were engraved at the expense of Mr. Hollis, and presented in sets to his friends, were of Edmund Ludlow; John Milton, the boy; the same at twenty-one years of age; the same from a bust in plaster; the same from a crayon of Toland's John Milton victorious of Salmasus; Algernon Sydney; Andrew Marvell; John Milton, John Locke, Thomas Hollis, Dr. John Wallis: all by Cipriani.", Pg 503. This original G. B. Cipriani etching entitled, Portrait of John Milton in Old Age was published in 1794 by J. & J. Boydell & G. Nicol for the first edition of The Poetical Works of John Milton, from the original plate commissioned by Thomas Hollis. Although many the plates were missing from the set, this etching was still bound into volume 1.
Size:	10 3/4 X 7 (Sizes in inches are approximate, height preceding width of plate-mark or image.)
	Matted with 100% Archival Materials
Buy Now	Price: $295.00 US
Condition:	Printed upon eighteenth century hand-made, laid paper and with full margins as published by J. & J. Boydell & G. Nicol in 1794. Containing slight foxing, mainly in the outer margins, else a strong, early impression and in very good condition throughout. "Portrait of John Milton in Old Age" represents a superb, original example of the famous eighteenth century art of Giovanni Battista Cipriani.
Subject:	Giovanni Battista Cipriani, "Portrait of John Milton in Old Age", William Faithorne the Elder, original etching, Royal Academy, diploma, John Milton (1608-1674), John and Josiah Boydell, The Poetical Works of John Milton., Thomas Hollis, I Sing with mortal voice, "Paradise Lost", Book Seven, John Toland's Life of Milton published in 1761, Memoirs of Thomas Hollis by Francis Blackburne, London, J. Nicholls, 1880.
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Giovanni Battista Cipriani & William Faithorne the elder

Portrait of John Milton in Old Age (The Poetical Works of John Milton)