Battle of the sea Gods. about. 1800 - ante 1824

Burin. 2 sheets of 299x398 and 299x440 mm, trimmed. good specimen.

The print reproduces in two sheets the famous Battle of the marine gods, engraved by Mantegna around 1470: in origin the two scenes were imprinted on the same copper, with slightly different measurements with respect to this edition. Malaspina: "This subject is engraved in two pieces here joined together forming a kind of low relief. Here on the left a gaunt and filthy figure on the back of a sea monster holding the raised hand holds a sign on which is written INVID, and it is in the act of spreading discord among the gods of the sea, what makes war arise even in the kingdom of Neptune, and therefore they fought among them, but with weapons all taken from the fluid element, that is who is made shield with skull of marine animal, who with bunch of fish of it form great lash, and who fights with bones of great monsters. Allegory of envy, truly poetic thought, and of masterly composition” Malaspina, Catalogo del 1824, pp. 33-34. Fo the original Bartsch XIII 17-18; Hind V 5-6; Martineau 79; Levenson-Oberhuber-Sheehan 75]