Agostino VENEZIANO (ca. 1490 - after 1536), On the way to the Sabbath or the witches' procession (original title "Lo stregozzo") ca. 1515-1525

Copperplate, paper, 35.5 x 68.5 cm. Several small margin tears long since glued, one tear entering the drawing, old brown spots in the margin. Good condition.

One of the most famous Renaissance prints concerning witches and magic. Reproduced many times in books and scholarly articles, including in Poland. Only a dozen pieces survived in the world's largest museums. Among others, the British Museum, the Paris Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum in N.Y. have it. The Göteborg Museum did an exhibition of 16th century prints in 2020, and this one as the most valuable was reproduced in a format of several meters. The prints are still attracting scholarly interest today. Curator Caroline Giddis of the Atlanta Museum of Art, after research, indicated that the plate could have been engraved by several artists including Raphael and Michelangelo. Raphael is also indicated as the author of this drawing now lost. Also, some scholars,point to Marcantonio Raimondi, teacher of Agostino Veneziano, as the main artist of the engraving. Since more than a dozen pieces of this print survived into the 19th century it was the husband of Queen Victoria of England-Prince Albert Coburg who, in 1857, rebounded 12 pieces from an old plate (kept at Coburg Castle) with the recommendation that they be donated to museums in Europe (article by Christiane Wiebel in "Print Quaterly" 2015). This piece found its way to Poland probably through the Szamotuly castle belonging to his brother Ernest Duke of Coburg - Gotha. To this day, scholars are still puzzling over the meaning of the procession of figures walking in procession, with various symbols, hence the series of articles on this mysterious work. This print appears at auction very rarely, including at Christie's in 2008 and 2016 (£15,000 and $25,000) and a later print was in 2007 at Karl und Faber in Munich (€7,000). We offer one of 12 pieces rebound from the original Renaissance plate at the behest of Elizabeth II's great-grandfather. Great Polish museums and libraries do not have this print. A rarity!