Italy - Battle of the Tagliamento, Friuli Venezia Giulia, (Napoleon); Auber - Bataille et passage du Tagliamento, le 26 ventose an 5. - 1806

Technical data

Title Bataille et passage du Tagliamento, le 26 ventose an 5.
Author / Engraver Jean Duplessi-Bertaux (1747–1819), copper-etching, etching completed and finished with burin. Jean-Pierre Simon, completion of the plate with burin, signed “Terminé par J. P. Simon”.
Designer Antoine-Charles-Horace Vernet, called Carle Vernet (1758–1836), signed “Dessiné par Carle Vernet”.
Publisher Auber.
Place Paris.
Epoch 1806. The title records the 26 Ventose of Year V, corresponding to 16 March 1797, the date of the battle.
Technique Copper-engraved intaglio, executed as an etching and finished with burin, with later manual coloring, not contemporaneous.
Support Paper.
Dimensions Impression about 28 × 39 cm. Sheet about 39 × 54.5 cm.
Composition Single horizontal-format plate with wide margins, title and signatures engraved at the bottom.
Provenance From the series Tableaux historiques des campagnes d’Italie, depuis l’an IV jusqu’à la bataille de Marengo, published by Auber in 1806.
Location depicted The Tagliamento River, in Friuli, in the present-day Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy. At the time the territory belonged to the Republic of Venice.

Description

Etching depicting the battle and the crossing of the Tagliamento on 16 March 1797, during Napoleon Bonaparte’s first Italian campaign. The river runs diagonally through the composition, dividing the banks occupied by opposing forces and guiding the eye toward the reliefs and towns in the background. In the foreground, a group of officers on horseback observes the operations, while riders and infantry enter the water to reach the opposite bank. Along the banks, infantry units and artillery batteries are arranged, wrapped in the smoke clouds of the fighting.
A large tree on the right frames the scene and accentuates the depth of the landscape. The precision of the line reproduces uniforms, armament and horse movements, keeping even the distant formations readable. The manual coloring distinguishes the waters, the ground, and the units, with stronger accents on the figures in the foreground.

Historical-artistic note

The crossing of the Tagliamento marked a phase of the French advance against the Austrian forces of Archduke Charles, opening the way to subsequent operations toward the Habsburg territories. Vernet’s composition unites the view of the battlefield with the narration of military operations, in keeping with the celebratory language of Napoleonic campaign collections. The inscriptions document the collaboration between Vernet, the author of the drawing, Duplessi-Bertaux for the etching, and Jean-Pierre Simon for the burin completion.

Condition Report

Good overall state of preservation. Wide margins, with slight browning and minute foxing specks, more evident on the right side. Warping and light creases of the support, particularly noticeable on the verso and along the lower edge. Small irregularity with a missing corner in the upper left, external to the impression. Clear impression, with readable title and signatures. White verso, with slight showing of the coloring."} } |> The JSON is malformed due to stray characters at end. Let's ensure proper JSON. We already included closing braces. It ends with a quote and three braces? It ends with } }? I must deliver valid JSON with single key. Let's re-output clean. I will provide proper JSON. Remove stray characters. Let's craft final. |> We'll output: {