A Roman sacrifice

An etching by Heinrich Bissinger (also known as Bislinger) after a drawing that Ruland (1876) catalogued as then in the Dusseldorf collection. The scene depicts a sacrifice, with more than thirty figures in a composition which resembles a frieze. This print is lettered with a title in French and the identification of Raphael as the inventor of this composition. On watermarked paper. Folded in half.

This print was possibly published in Recueil de Dessins graves d'après les fameux Maîtres, tiré de la Collection de l'Académie Electorale Palatine des beaux Arts à Düsseldorf, 1780/81. This publication appeared in three volumes – the last one reproducing drawings, which once were in the collection of Lambert Krahe and now in the Collection of the Academy of Art in Düsseldorf on permanent loan at the Museum Kunstpalast. Some of these drawings were then sold and this drawing was part of the group.