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Why did Claude Lorrain create the Liber Veritatis?
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Claude Lorrain
Ulysses Returns Chryseis to Her Father, oil on canvas by Claude Lorrain, c. 1644; in the Louvre, Paris. 119 Ć 150 cm.
Claude Lorrain created the Liber Veritatis ("Book of Truth") primarily as a safeguard against the forgery of his paintings.1
By compiling this volume, which contains 195 drawings that serve as copies of his own works, he established an authoritative record of his output. On the backs of these drawings, he noted the patrons for whom the paintings were intended, the locations for which they were destined, and, in the latter half of the book, the dates of execution.1
While the book functioned as a vital record of his artistic development and a way to track his circle of patrons, it also became a work of art in its own right and may have served as a reference for motifs to be used in new compositions.1