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Lot Essay
This picture is based on Agostino Carracci's eponymous engraving. The correct interpretation of the subject is not known, although Louis Dunand wrote that it was inspired by a composition of W. Haecht, engraved in 1578 by Jerome Wierix (L. Dunand, 'A Propos d'une estampe rare du Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon appartenant a la suite du "Lascivie" d'Augustin Carrache', Bulletin des Musées Lyonnais, 1957, 8-9, note 11).
Carracci's engraving has traditionally been numbered amongst the series of fifteen prints called the Lascivie for their sexual subject matter. Bodmer dated the Lascivie circa 1584-6, although whether Carracci intended them as a series is unknown. Carlo Cesare Malvasia (Felsina Pittrice, Vite de Pittori Bolognesi, I, ed. Giampietro Zanotti, Bologna, 1841, original edition 1678) relates that the series incurred the displeasure of Pope Clement VIII (1592-1605), who admonished Carracci for his lack of decorum.
Carracci's engraving has traditionally been numbered amongst the series of fifteen prints called the Lascivie for their sexual subject matter. Bodmer dated the Lascivie circa 1584-6, although whether Carracci intended them as a series is unknown. Carlo Cesare Malvasia (Felsina Pittrice, Vite de Pittori Bolognesi, I, ed. Giampietro Zanotti, Bologna, 1841, original edition 1678) relates that the series incurred the displeasure of Pope Clement VIII (1592-1605), who admonished Carracci for his lack of decorum.