Attributed to Girolamo Faccioli (Italian, 1530-1573) after Perino Del Vaga (Italian, 1500-1547)
Jupiter defeating the Giants (Bartsch XV.45.16)
Engraving, circa 1530-47, on laid paper, an impression of the second (final) state, published by Antoine Lafréry, Rome, his name printed on the plate, unevenly trimmed to or inside the platemark but outside the borderline on all sides, framed

Sheet 349 x 576mm (13 3/4 x 22 3/4in)
Footnotes:
The Bolognese printmaker Girolamo Faccioli drafts this Gigantomachy after Perino del Vanga's design for the ceiling fresco in the Sala dei Giganti in the Genoese Palazzo Doria. The artist follows Ovid's account and represents Jupiter as the sole warrior against the giants, who try to ascend Mount Olympus and usurp his throne. Faccioli also drew inspiration from Apollodoro's rendition, supplying the giants with boulders and trees as weapons. This mythological representation was often commissioned by Italian Lords as a symbol of allegiance to the Holy Roman Emperor and as an allegory for Charles V's victories over the Turks and the Protestants – the epitome of this iconography being Sala dei Giganti in Palazzo Te, painted in Manua after the emperor granted Federico II Gonzaga the ducal title in 1530. The link between this commission in Genoa and the Imperator Romanorum is equally direct and explicit. In 1533, Charles V was hosted by Andrea Doria, the master of the palace, and used this newly decorated room as an interim throne room.

In addition to the catalogue entry:

- pale time staining
- with pale foxing throughout
- a hard vertical central fold backed at top and below verso; with an associated small thin spot and rubbing to the centre
- the sheet edges backed verso, with four further areas backed verso
- a circa 2cm repaired tear to the centre of the lower sheet edge, going slightly inside the subject; a further circa 1.7cm repaired horizontal tear to the centre of the right sheet edge going into the subject
- other small surface defects
- a pencil inscription to the lower left corner

Attached to the backing board along the sheet edges verso. The back of the sheet not accessible for inspection.