Léon DAVENT: A Sacrifice - c. 1540/45
Price: 12 000 €
Etching, 275 x 490 mm. Jenkins LD39, 1st state (of 3), Zerner 39, Bartsch 14.
Impression of the first state before the plate was cut down to the right, bottom and left, before the inscription His, et talibus monumentis olim ornata fuit […], before Antonio Lafreri’s address and the date 1565. “Early impressions” (“premières épreuves” according to Bartsch, Le Peintre-graveur, vol. 16, p. 315), that is impressions from the first state, are very rare.
Superb impression printed on laid paper; a few pale foxmarks; generally in excellent condition. Thread margins all around the platemark.
“This print, after a drawing by Primaticcio executed in Rome (inv. 584 Städel Museum, Frankfurt; Malke, 1980, no. 84), relates closely to a section of Trajan’s Column (LXVI/XCI) that depicts the Emperor Trajan at an altar in the presence of Romans and Dacians, women and children (illustrated in Coarelli, 2000, pp. 150-151, plates 106 and 107).” Catherine Jenkins: Prints at the Court of Fontainebleau, c. 1542-47, 2017, p. 58)