A group of figures from the antique

A reversed etching of a drawing by the school of Raphael depicting a group of figures from the antique now in the Louvre, Paris (inv. no. 3878 verso). See RCIN 854570 for a photograph of the drawing and RCIN 854569 for a photograph of the recto. This print is signed by the printmaker and lettered with the attribution of the drawing to Raphael and its location in the 'Cabinet du Roy'. This print was published in 'Cabinet du Roy', a set of etchings executed by the Comte de Caylus reproducing drawings from the French Royal collection. Trimmed within the platemark. On watermarked paper.

Cordellier and Py (see Bibliographic References) catalogued this drawing as a study by an artist in Raphael's studio (Giulio Romano?). They suggested that the motifs here depicted (perhaps Mercury leading to Hell a husband lamented by his wife) were borrowed from imperial Roman coins, while Ruland (1876) believed the source to be a bas-relief. See also RCINs 854571 and 854572 for photographs of drawings depicting similar compositions now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.