The capture of Cartagena by the Romans under Scipio Africanus. Engraving by G. Pencz after G. Romano.

Romae [Rome] : Apud Carolum Losi, Anno 1773.

1 print : engraving ; platemark 42 x 56.6 cm

Georgiusz Pencz pictor Nurnberg. Faciebat anno MDXIXXXIX. Iulius Romanus inventor. PG On the interpretation of the date MDXIXXXIX see Massari, pp. 51-52: it has been read as 1539, 1549 and 1540

[state with imprint of Carlo Losi].

"This engraving provides important evidence of Pencz's association with Giulio Romano (c. 1499-1546) in Mantua when he visited Italy in 1539-40. It is a close copy after a drawing of a composition by Giulio, now in the Musée du Louvre, Paris. The composition was designed in connection with a famous series of tapestries of the 'History of Scipio' commissioned by Francis I, King of France. The series tells of the feats of Scipio Africanus (c.234-c.183 BC), the Roman general whose victories in Spain and north Africa against the Carthaginians brought the Second Punic War to an end. This scene shows his moment of capture of Carthagena (New Carthage) in Spain. The cartoons for the series were executed by Romano and his assistant Giovanni Francesco Penni in 1531-3 and then sent to a weaver in Brussels, where the tapestries were completed in 1535. The tapestries remained in the French Royal collection until 1797, when they were destroyed so that the gold and silver in the cloth could be extracted. A number of extant preparatory drawings were produced in connection with the project, at least one of which was evidently still in Romano's studio in Mantua at the time of Pencz's visit (see B. Jestaz and R. Bacou, 'Jules Romain: l'Histoire de Scipion, tapisseries et dessins', exh. cat., Paris, Grand Palais, 1978, p. 34 and passim). The very large scale of this print makes Pencz's achievement all the more remarkable when it is compared with the small size of the plates he usually engraved, and it was singled out for particular praise by Joachim von Sandrart in 1675 (Sandrart, p. 78). Pencz's complete mastery of the technique is most clearly seen in the subtle way he engraves varying thicknesses of lines and dots to different degrees of depth, in order to achieve a strong contrast between foreground and background. The print was published in Italy where the plate remained. The first state has only Pencz's monogram and inscription on it; the reference to Giulio Romano was added in the second. It was then published by Antonio Salamanca (active 1530-c.1562) in Rome, where the plate apparently remained until the seventh state was published by Carlo Losi in 1773" (Bartrum, loc. cit.)

Stefania Massari, Giulio Romano pinxit et delineavit, Roma: Palombi, 1993, no. 43, pp. 50-52

Giulia Bartrum, German Renaissance prints 1490-1550, London: British Museum, 1995, no. 110

Wellcome Collection 34704i