Pietro Aquila (1650-1692) After Cortona - Engraving, Rape of the Sabines

Description

This remarkably fine late 17th Century engraving by painter and engraver Pietro Aquila (1650-1692) captures the ravishing qualities of the original c.1630 painting entitled 'The Rape of the Sabines' by Pietro da Cortona (1596-1669), currently hanging in the Palazzo dei Conservatori in Rome.

Aquila made numerous copies of the most remarkable paintings by his contemporaries, and this large engraving demonstrates his proficiency for detail and figurative form.

Inscribed below the image 'Petrus Beretinus Cortonensis pinxit in aedibus dominorum de Sacchettis Pet. Aq. del. e f.', with a further dedication to Balthasar Canizzares e Ventimiglia. Published by Giovanni Giacomo de Rossi.

Signed in plate. On laid.

Condition

The condition is typical for an engraving of this age, with some even surface discolouration, and several small tears around the edges of the laid paper. Some scuffing and creases to the corners, with small tears. There is a repaired tear down the centerfold of the work, and another restored and repaired tear to the left edge measuring 14cm. Trimmed just outside the plate lines.

Size

45.8 x 62cm (18" x 24.4")

Artist Biography

Pietro Aquila (1650-1692) was an Italian painter and printmaker of the Baroque period. He was born in Palermo. Aquila established himself first and foremost as a copper engraver, dedicating himself to the distribution and popularization of many of the most remarkable paintings with the help of which the sacred and profane buildings of Rome were adorned at that time. 

His most important effort is represented by the reproduction of Carracci paintings in Palazzo Farnese published in two series by Gian Giacomo De Rossi at Pace. Another important work of Aquila was the reproduction, in collaboration with Cesare Fantetti, of the "Raphael Bible" in the Vatican.