GIOVANNI BATTISTA BRACCELLI
Bizzarie. Propos sur Braccelli par Tristan Tzara. L’aventure d’un livre et notes bibliographiques par Alain Brieux.
£300

Paris. (Alain Brieux), 1963. 2 parts. I: Text. With 1 folding plan; II: 50 facsimile plates. In 4to vellum, oblong slipcase. One of limited edition of 525 numbered copies with original preface by Tristan Tzara.

Bizzarie is one of the rarest and most mysterious etching suites of the late Renaissance. The creation of an almost unknown Florentine painter and engraver, it languished in near-total obscurity until it was rediscovered in modern times. The art historian Sir Kenneth Clark was instrumental in the rediscovery of Braccelli, and the poet Tristan Tzara drew parallels between these etchings and the revolutionary artistic agendas of Dada and Surrealism. This is a remarkable precursor of the radical artistic movements of the twentieth century, this rare show of visual oddities is filled with fabulous and jocund variations on the human form, constructed from an hallucinatory variety of animate and inanimate components. It is truly a work without precedent or explanation beside itself. Its sensuous imagery, occupying dreamlike space made it an underground sensation amongst twentieth century artists and connoisseurs.

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