A dance of three fauns and three bacchantes

An etching copying in reverse an engraving by Agostino Veneziano depicting a dance of three fauns and three bacchantes probably after a drawing copying an antique bas-relief. This print is signed by the printmaker with his monogram. On watermarked paper. Trimmed within the platemark.

According to Massari (see Bibliographic References), the print by Agostino that Bartsch catalogued as the original is actually a copy after Marcantonio's print (see RCIN 854579 for Marcantonio's print and RCIN 854576 for Agostino's print). Only the left half of Marcantonio's print is known, which could suggest that Agostino extended the composition to include the other three figures on the right.

Massari (see Bibliographic References) recognised various drawings as the possible source of the print: a drawing after Raphael now in the Royal Library, Windsor (RCIN 990331, see also RCIN 854583) depicting the three figures on the right of this print, but in a different order. In the Albertina Museum, Vienna (inv. no. 217, see RCIN 854581 for a photograph of it) there is a drawing depicting the same three figures currently attributed to either Raphael or Giulio Romano; another drawing of a bacchante and a faun is in the Louvre, Paris (inv. no. 5001), previously attributed to Battista Franco and now believed to be by Giulio Romano on the basis of another drawing's attribution in the Louvre (inv. no. 5002).

According to S. Ferino (see Bibliographic References) the various drawings could be studies intended for grotesque decorations, either the frescoes of Cardinal Bibiena's Loggetta (c.1516) or the Logge (c.1516 -1518/19) in the Vatican. For the drawing now in the Louvre (inv. no. 5001) it is specified that this is inspired by the characters of a relief of the 1st century (now in Mantua, Palazzo Ducale, inv. no. 6705).