Louis-Joseph LE LORRAIN (1715 - 1759): The Descent of Ulysses into Hell - 1757

Image HD

Price: € 1500

Etching, 223 x 388 mm. IFF 18, undescribed state.

Very rare impression before any letter: before the title, signature and date, and before the addition of the caption in the lower margin detailing the names of the numbered characters in the image (Ariadne and Phaedra, Orpheus, Hector, Paris, Sisyphus, Tantalus, etc.).

A very fine impression printed on laid paper, trimmed on the platemark. Very good condition, slight trace of vertical fold in the centre.

This print, titled Second tableau: La Descente d'Ulysse aux Enfers in its final version, is matched by a Premier tableau: L'Embarquement des Grecs après la Prise de Troie. The two etchings date from 1757 and were subsequently included with the Shield of Hercules and the Shield of Aeneas in Volume XXVII of the Histoire de l’Académie des Belles Lettres to illustrate papers by the Comte de Caylus on subjects of Greek antiquity.