Design: Mannequin Parts, from Encyclopédie
1762/77
Medium
Engraving on cream laid paper
Dimensions
40 × 26 cm (15 3/4 × 10 1/4 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
148235
Art Historical Context
Step into the Enlightenment with *Design: Mannequin, from Encyclopédie* (1762/77), an etching by A. J. Defehrt. This precise, housed in the Art of Chicago's Prints and collection, hails from Denis Diderot's groundbreaking *Encyclopédie*, 28-volume compendium of knowledge that revolutionized 18th-century thought. Amid plates depicting sciences, arts, and trades, Defehrt's work illustrates articulated mannequin components—joints, limbs, andos—likely designed for tailors, sculptors, or anatomists to study human proportions and drapery. Printed on cream laid paper (40 × 26 cm), the etching techni...
About the Artist
A. J. Defehrt · 1708–1779
A. J. Defehrt (1723–1779) was a French draftsman, painter, and engraver whose career is best defined by his substantial contributions to one of the most ambitious publishing projects of the European Enlightenment: the illustrated plates of Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert's Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. This monumental project, which aimed t...