Jacques Joseph Coiny

Jacques-Joseph, Jacques Joseph or Joseph Coiny (19 March 1761, Versailles - 28 May 1809) was a French engraver.

Life

His best-known work remains his 20 engravings of erotic poses for L'Arétin d'Augustin Carrache ou Recueil de postures érotiques, published by Pierre Didot[1] in Paris in 1798. Its title refers to Agostino Carracci's and Pietro Aretino's work I Modi but it was not based on their images and poems. Instead, Coiny's works seem to have been inspired by the erotic poses in 'The Loves of the Gods' executed in Antwerp at the start of the 17th century in burin by Pieter de Jode I (1570-1634).[2] This theory remains contested to this day. In effect, Coiny seems to have had a set of six anonymous prints, but it is difficult to say precisely which.[3] "L'Arétin" in the title probably does not specifically refer to Pietro Aretino and his original poems for I Modi - by the mid 17th century, an "Arétin" referred to any work reproducing pornography using mythological scenes. Later less finely-printed editions were accompanied by sonnets by Simon-Célestin Croze-Magnan (1750-1818) but were quickly banned by the police during the First French Empire.

Coiny's other works include engravings of battle paintings by Louis-François Lejeune. His pupils included Théodore Richomme and his son Joseph Coiny won the Prix de Rome for engraving in 1816.

References
  1. The frontispiece states À la nouvelle Cythère, without a date or place of publication.
  2. (in French) Louis Dunand and Philippe Lemarchand, Augustin Carrache. Les amours des Dieux, Genève, Slatkine, 1990, pp. 1009-1033.
  3. (in French) Nathalie Strasser in Éros invaincu. La Bibliothèque Gérard Nordmann, Genève, Cercle d'art, 2004, pp. 30-31.
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