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Lot Essay
This crowded yet dynamic composition is based on Francesco Primaticcio's painting in the Appartement des Bains at Fontainebleau. Primaticcio's composition would have been inspired by Giulio Romano's fresco of the same subject in the Camera delle Aquile in Palazzo Te' in Mantua (circa 1527-28), where he had worked as a stucco painter. The figure of Phaeton may ultimately relate to Michelangelo's drawing of Jupiter and Ganymede, today in the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard, Cambridge (Mass.).
Catherine Jenkins attributes this rare engraving to the Master FG, an anonymous engraver who appears to have been working with Primaticcio and engraved some plates after his designs. He has been tentatively identified as Guido Ruggeri or Girolamo Fagiuoli, who like Primaticcio came from Bologna. An etching after the same model by Primaticcio was made by Antonio Fantuzzi (AF 83) at Fontainebleau. The watermark present in this impression is recorded in Rome around 1540 - for example in prints by Enea Vico published by Antonio Salamanca - and suggest that the plate was created in Italy rather than France.
Catherine Jenkins attributes this rare engraving to the Master FG, an anonymous engraver who appears to have been working with Primaticcio and engraved some plates after his designs. He has been tentatively identified as Guido Ruggeri or Girolamo Fagiuoli, who like Primaticcio came from Bologna. An etching after the same model by Primaticcio was made by Antonio Fantuzzi (AF 83) at Fontainebleau. The watermark present in this impression is recorded in Rome around 1540 - for example in prints by Enea Vico published by Antonio Salamanca - and suggest that the plate was created in Italy rather than France.