Antonio da Trento (1508-1550) The Martyrdom of... Lot 26

Antonio da Trento (1508-1550) The Martyrdom of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. Woodcut in chiaroscuro using three blocks after Le Parmesan. 480 x 294. Bartsch 28. Good proof on laid paper, trimmed to the subject. Various damages: fractured median vertical fold, large brownish moisture halos, several vertical tears at the edges of the folio, associated with old traces of oxidized or roughly restored adhesive. Stamp R. T. "Various printers reissued Le Martyre des deux saints throughout the 16th century. The print shares a late-edition posterity with Ugo da Carpi's 'The Descent from the Cross', 'The Death of Ananias' and 'Diogenes', with Antonio da Trento's 'Augustus and the Sibyl of Tibur', and with the tint plates of Parmigianino's 'St. Peter and St. John Healing the Paralytic'. The matrices for these chiaroscuro prints, which must have been assembled in Parmigianino's workshop in Bologna, where both engravers were active between 1527 and 1530, were reprinted in large numbers, in oily brown inks, on paper with a watermark depicting a letter F on three mounts within a shield (circa 1580). The present impression is an example of this posthumous edition, which may have been printed around the last quarter of the 16th century (Naoko Takahatake, in cat. expo. Gravure en clair-obscur Cranach, Raphaël, Rubens, Musée du Louvre, Paris, October 17, 2018-January 14, 2019, pp. 80-81, no. 19)." (Source: Musée du Louvre website).