Four Elephants

An etching attributed to Battista Franco supposedly after designs by Giulio Romano.

The four elephants recur (in reverse) in a composition engraved by Cornelis Cort dated 1567, generally thought to be based upon an invention by Giulio Romano related to the set of tapestries illustrating the history of Scipio Africanus commissioned from him by Francis I between 1531 and 1535. A second state impression of the engraving can be found at RCIN 852263.

The composition is recorded in a handful of sheets now in the Louvre (inv. nos.3717 and 3718) and in the Albertina, Vienna (inv. SR 405). Another was formerly in the Lord Leigh Collection (photograph at RCIN 852260) and a further one was once in the Gatteaux Collection in Paris but was destroyed in 1871 (photograph at RCIN 852258).

Almost identical elephants appear (in reverse) in a red chalk drawing now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (inv. no.WA1846.226) generally ascribed to Giulio Romano. For a photograph of the drawing, see RCIN 852261.