Artist: Giorgio Ghisi (Italian, 1520 - 1582).
Title: "The Judgment of Paris".
Medium: Engraving.
Date: Composed 1555. Printed c1555.
Dimensions: Overall size: 15 1/2 x 20 5/8 in. (394 x 524 mm).
Lot Note(s): Inscription lettered in the tablet/plate, lower left: “Baptista Bertano Mantuanus Inventor / Georgius Ghisi Mantuanus Fecit / Hieronymus Cock Excude. / .M.D.L.V. / Cu[m] Gra et Pre. Caes. M.t Ad Sexe[n]nium”. Edition unknown, presumed very small. Printed on laid paper, fortified by hand-made cream wove paper in the late 19th Century. Thread margins. A fine impression of the finished third and final state, printing with good contrasts and great clarity, and remarkably even for a plate of this size. Condition: trimmed unevenly but generally just inside the platemark, retaining a fillet of blank paper outside the borderline, scattered scuffing with small paper losses, creasing upper right corner, barely visible horizontal creasing inherent in the support sheet, minor staining center-left, other minor defects, presents very well. Literature/catalogue raisonne: Suzanne Boorsch et al, “The Engravings of Giorgio Ghisi.” NY, 1985, p.78 n.16.iii; Adam von Bartsch, “Le Peintre graveur.” Vienna, 1803, B.XV.408.60; Paolo Bellini “L’opera incise di Giorgio Ghisi.” Bassano del Grappa, 1998, p.115 n.25.iii. Provenance: A duplicate sold by the Netherlands Institute for Art History, from the collection of the Rijksprentenkabinet. Comment(s): According to “Gordon’s Print Prices” the last auction sale of this rare and large print realized £11,250 ($17,661) at Christie’s, London, December 3, 2014, lot #40. [30065-4-6000]

Condition: trimmed unevenly but generally just inside the platemark, retaining a fillet of blank paper outside the borderline, scattered scuffing with small paper losses, creasing upper right corner, barely visible horizontal creasing inherent in the support sheet, minor staining center-left, other minor defects, presents very well.