La vente Mariette. Le catalogue illustré par Gabriel de Saint-Aubin

The great collection of Pierre-Jean Mariette is finally being published in five large volumes, introduced by this anastatic copy of the book which has allowed it to be reconstructed. In 1775, when all the items in the collection belonging to Pierre-Jean Mariette came under the hammer at a seemingly endless auction, an immense collection of incalculable value was disintegrated - more than 9,000 drawings, all marked with the Mariette monogram: pencil sketches by Salviati and Rubens, charcoal drawings by Watteau and others by French, Italian and Flemish artists ended up by being sucked into the mare magnum of private collectors. Today, a book kept at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston contains a description of the works that were auctioned, with illustrations of the items in the margin by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin (1624-1780). These drawings in the margin, rapidly executed pencil sketches, have been very important in reconstructing Mariette's huge collection, which dispersed into private and public hands. The anastatic copy of the book is now presented in its complete form, in a smaller refined edition, as an introduction to the broader-ranging work about Pierre-Jean Mariette's collection.