The lion hunt

An engraving by Marcantonio Raimondi depicting a sarcophagus relief of the mid 3rd century AD, which according to Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574)  was then in the forecourt of St Peter's Basilica, Rome. Signed by the printmaker with his monogram and inscribed: QUE STABANT VIX HOSPITIBUS SPECTANDA SEPULCHRA, QUILIBET ARBITRIO IAM VIDET ILLA SUO"; "ROMAE IN IMPLUVIO S. PETRI". Trimmed within the platemark. 

The sarcophagus, which depicts a scene of a lion hunt, is now in Palazzo Rospigliosi, Rome. This engraving has been catalogued by the British Museum (see Bibliographic References) as after a drawing traditionally attributed to Baldassarre Peruzzi now in the Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth (inv. no. 43). According to the catalogue of drawings in the Chatsworth Collection (see Bibliographic References), the source for this drawing is an engraving by Agostino Veneziano (c.1524-1527). On the basis of the inscription on the print by Marcantonio, which refers to the location of the sarcophagus in St Peter's Basilica, and some differences between the print and the drawing, it is more plausible that there was an intermediary drawing, now probably lost. Other drawings depicting this sarcophagus are known: one by Amico Aspertini (Codex Wolfegg, fols. 35v-36) and one by Giulio Romano (Uffizi, Florence, inv. no. 1491E).