Andrea Andreani (c. 1558/59-1629) The Triumph of Julius Caesar. 1599. One oblong vol. in-fol. [463 x 435] containing the complete suite of 9 subjects preceded by a title. Woodcut in chiaroscuro using 4 woodcuts, of different shades for each subject, on drawings by B. Malpizzi after the paintings by Mantegna (made for F. Gonzaga, 4th Marquis of Mantua, now in Hampton Court, London). Bartsch (vol. 11), p. 101, no. 11. Good, complete proofs of the tablet with the number, mounted by the left edge on a thin gummed paper tab, the fulling very noticeable on the reverse. Accidents including creases, fractures, tears and small (or larger) restorations to some plates. Small old inscription "Triumph of Caesar" in pen and sepia ink on verso of title along upper right edge. Missing the engraved columns intended to separate the 9 subjects. Rare. Bound in full morocco with fillets, spine ribbed and gilt title, full marbled paper boards (label "Pierre Berès / Paris" in the upper left corner of the 2nd plate). Andreani has here taken the subject from Mantegna's suite of paintings, painted in tempera on canvas for the Gonzaga family between 1485-1486 and the 1490's. Mantegna himself engraved several of these compositions from his preparatory drawings, but Andreani is the first to have reproduced the complete series of Triumphs. He did not work directly from Mantegna's paintings, even though they were in Mantua at the time, until 1630, when they were sold to Charles I of England. No, he took as his model the grisailles by Bernardo Malpizzi (c. 1556-1623), specially executed for this purpose, and reduced the size of the original paintings, about 266 x 278 cm, to the size of the woodcuts by means of a tiling process. The dates 1598 and 1599 on two plates of the suite indicate that it took Andreani six years to complete the engraving of the thirty-six woodcuts. " (P. Fuhring, in S. Lepape ed., Gravure en clair-obscur; Cranach, Raphaël Rubens, exhibition cat., Paris, Musée du Louvre-Liénart éditions, 2018, p. 162).
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