Zodiac Signs

An outline etching by Charles Landon reproducing four of the Zodiac signs (Libra, Aquarius, Virgo and Gemini) from the Sala dei Pontefici in the Borgia Apartment, Vatican, frescoed by Perin del Vaga and Giovanni da Udine. This print is lettered with "124" at the upper right corner, the title in French, German and Latin at the bottom of the print and the identification of Raphael as the painter of the fresco. Signed by the printmaker. This print was published as plate 124 in C.P. Landon, 'Vie et Œuvre complète de Raphaël Sanzio', 1803. The vault of this room was frescoed with personifications of the Planets and Zodiac signs by Perin del Vaga and Giovanni da Udine, surely after September 1520 (when Sebastiano del Piombo writes in a letter to Michelangelo that this work had not being commissioned yet) and before 1524, when Parmigianino was commissioned by Pope Clement VII to decorate the walls of the room. The coat of arms of Pope Leo X is visible in the four corners of the room and therefore, at the time of his death in December 1521, the decoration must have been at a relatively advanced stage (see Bibliographic References for the different opinions about the end date).