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Lot Essay
This large and rare print by Léon Davent, previously unidentified and simply known as the Maître LD, one the most prolific etchers of the School of Fontainebleau, is after a design by Luca Penni. No direct preparatory drawing has survived, but another interpretation of the subject by Penni is in the Uffizi, Florence (inv. no. 440 S). The subject proved popular with printmakers: a similar version was etched by the Master of the Story of Cadmus, as well as engraved by Enea Vico and the Master FG, the latter after a drawing by Primaticcio (see Jenkins MSC 6; Bartsch 31 & 4).
The present sheet bears an Arms of Nuremberg watermark. This and the Arms of Schrobenhausen watermarks have been found on several impressions of prints after Luca Penni by Davent and the Master of the Black Eye, executed between 1546-47. According to Catherine Jenkins these are 'much richer and considerably better impressions than those printed on French paper.'
A third of the impressions with the Nuremberg watermark show offsetting of other etchings, as a result of the freshly printed impressions being stacked on top of each other. This suggests a more organised printing campaign, either at Fontainebleau or in Paris, and an effort to use paper of a higher quality. The present sheet also shows traces of offsetting from another print and a sketch in black chalk tracing the two central and left figures of the print on the reverse.
The print was once in the collection of Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München and bears its oldest stamp, used between 1806 and circa 1905.
Jenkins records about twenty impressions in public collections and three in private collections. To our knowledge no other example has been offered at auction in the last thirty years.
The present sheet bears an Arms of Nuremberg watermark. This and the Arms of Schrobenhausen watermarks have been found on several impressions of prints after Luca Penni by Davent and the Master of the Black Eye, executed between 1546-47. According to Catherine Jenkins these are 'much richer and considerably better impressions than those printed on French paper.'
A third of the impressions with the Nuremberg watermark show offsetting of other etchings, as a result of the freshly printed impressions being stacked on top of each other. This suggests a more organised printing campaign, either at Fontainebleau or in Paris, and an effort to use paper of a higher quality. The present sheet also shows traces of offsetting from another print and a sketch in black chalk tracing the two central and left figures of the print on the reverse.
The print was once in the collection of Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München and bears its oldest stamp, used between 1806 and circa 1905.
Jenkins records about twenty impressions in public collections and three in private collections. To our knowledge no other example has been offered at auction in the last thirty years.