[Costumi dal Bonnard. Album n° 4].

Sm. oblong 4to: [13] ff., pencil drawings heightened with watercolour (some ff. detached).

Contemp. half green cloth, green paper covers, flat spine (rubbed, spine very def., front joint detached).

Italian, mostly Sienese, female and male costumes reproduced from the work of Camille Bonnard "Costumes historiques des XIIe, XIIIe, XIVe et XVe siècles": this album reproduces for example the matrone (p. 52, vol. I), the Rector of Siena Hospital (p. 51, vol. I), some artisans (recomposition of 2 separate pl. in Bonnard pp. 25 and 26 of vol. I), etc. With captions in Italian and some notes by Dell'Acqua: list of books and manuscripts he copied the drawings from (?) and on a pasted leaf a note about the "Ghibellini". At the end, some sketches in pencil, two monogrammed "CDA" and dated 1848, figuring an Oriental man (partly hand-coloured) and groups of people. According to the title Dell'Acqua wrote on front flyleaf, the drawings were executed in Brussels. Coming from Piran (Slovenia), he arrived in the city around 1848 where he continued his studies with the painter and engraver Louis Gallait (1810-1887). Probably these drawings were exercices which he made as a student in Brussels (cfr "primi" on the title).
Later, between 1852 and 1877, Dell'Acqua completed a number of commissioned works in Trieste which established his reputation as a painter. Maximilian I of Mexico commissioned him some paintings to decorate the Miramare Castle. In Brussels the works he exhibited enjoyed a very favourable response and he received commissions from prominent families in Brussels, such as Errera, van Wambecke and van der Elst. Cesare Dell'Acqua is known for his works representing important historical events and Orientalism.