The Battle of Zama

A photograph of a drawing catalogued by Ruland (1876) as being then in the collection of Édouard Gatteaux in Paris. According to Roseline Bacou (in 'Jules Romain. L'Histoire de Scipion', 1978), the drawing was destroyed in 1871 together with two other sheets belonging to the same collection. Other drawings of this subject survive in the Louvre (inv. nos.3717 and 3718) and in the Albertina, Vienna (inv. SR 405). The subject is related to the set of tapestries illustrating the history of Scipio Africanus commissioned by Francis I from Giulio Romano between 1531 and 1535, who is held responsible for the invention of the composition. The Louvre drawing (inv. no.3717) has been described as the design ('petit patron') for the tapestry. The composition was engraved by Cornelis Cort in 1567, an impression of which can be found at RCIN 852263. It has been suggested that the ex-Gatteaux drawing (which is pricked for transfer) may be the original by Giulio Romano and may have served as the modello for the engraving (Massari 1993). In 1953, Lord Leigh of Stoneleigh Abbey presented a photograph of a drawing of this composition then in his possession to the Royal Library (RCIN 852260), which was later described by K.T. Parker (1956) as the drawing pounced from the ex-Gatteaux sheet. For further discussion on the subject, see Bibliographic References.