ANTONIO FANTUZZI (ACTIVE 1537-1550) AFTER GIULIO ROMANO (CIRCA 1499-1545)

The Banquet of Scipio

Details

ANTONIO FANTUZZI (ACTIVE 1537-1550) AFTER GIULIO ROMANO (CIRCA 1499-1545)
The Banquet of Scipio
etching, 1543, on laid paper, watermark Small Fleur-de-Lys (similar to Briquet 6925, Valence 1549), a very good impression of this large and rare print, printing a little dryly at upper right, trimmed to or just inside the platemark, with a vertical and a horizontal central fold, the folds split in places and repaired, a few short repaired tears and flattened folds at lower right, two short repaired tears at the upper left sheet edge, otherwise in good condition
Sheet 423 x 585 mm.

Provenance

Pierre Mariette II (1634-1716), Paris (Lugt 1790), dated 1690 and inscribed in his hand 'Jules Romain tapisserie' in brown ink verso.
Sotheby's, London, 3 December 1987, lot 513.
With Artemis Fine Arts, London; acquired at the above sale.
Acquired from the above, on 8 December 1987.

Literature

Bartsch 28; Zerner 57
B. Barryte, Myth, Allegory and Faith - The Kirk Edward Long Collection of Mannerist Prints, Stanford, 2015, no. 12.2., p. 300-1 (another impression illustrated).
C. Jenkins, Prints at the Court of Fontainebleau c. 1542-47, Ouderkerk aan den IJseel, 2017, no. AF 57, p. 202-3 (another impression illustrated).

Brought to you by

Tim Schmelcher

tschmelcher@christies.com +44 20 7389 2268

Lot Essay

Jenkins records eight impressions of this print, not including the present impression.
The etching is based on Giulio Romano's designs for a series of tapestries of the Triumphs of Scipio, commissioned by François I in 1532 and completed in 1535. Sadly, the tapestries were destroyed to retrieve the precious metals in 1797, but some early reweavings survive. The modelli are also still in existence, nine at the Louvre and the one of the present subject at the Musée Condé at Chantilly. A preparatory sketch of the Banquet of Scipio by Giulio Romano is in the Royal Collection at Windsor.
We are grateful to Catherine Jenkins, London, for her help in cataloguing this lot.

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