Accession Number
2004/2.165

Title
Deuxieme frontispice (Assise sur le globe)

Artist(s)
James Jacques Joseph Tissot

Artist Nationality
French (culture or style)

Object Creation Date
1875

Medium & Support
drypoint on paper

Dimensions
10 1/16 in x 6 1/2 in (25.56 cm x 16.51 cm);15 9/16 in x 11 1/8 in (39.53 cm x 28.26 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Robert Aldrich

Subject matter
This image is one of three rejected frontispieces that Tissot made for his first portfolio of ten etchings. The allegorical nude female in the guise of Fortune, who sits atop a globe, was a common motif during the Renaissance, especially in the printed work of Northern artists like Albrecht Dürer, Albrecht Altdorfer, and Lucas Cranach the Elder. 

Physical Description
A nude woman sits on a large sphere and looks down, to her right. She holds a blank tablet in her left hand (against which she also leans her head), and a sprig of laurel leaves in her right hand, which rests behind her right thigh. Laurel leaves also decorate her hair. A ribbon crosses her chest and right hip. The space behind the woman and the sphere are left blank.
Signed in the image, lower left corner, in the plate: "J.J. Tissot / 1875"

Primary Object Classification
Print

Primary Object Type
intaglio print

Collection Area
Western

Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.

Keywords
Laurus (genus)
allegory (artistic device)
devices (symbols)
drypoint (printing process)
female
frontispieces (illustrations)
globes (cartographic spheres)
laurel wreaths
nudes (representations)
portfolios (groups of works)
spheres (geometric figures)