Roman Carts, Carriages and a Ceremonial Car from Reliefs, 1722

This is an original antique copper engraving, uncolored, a single page plate from Montfaucon's Antiquity Explained, and Represented in Sculptures. At the top two ox carts are loaded with shields and arrows, and below them a cart carries two great curved baskets heaped with shields, drawn by oxen and a smaller beast. At the center right are a round medallion with a covered carriage drawn by two mules, an oval gem with a driver in a two wheeled cart drawn by one horse, and a tombstone with a portrait bust above a small two wheeled cart and driver. Below are a cart carrying three helmeted soldiers, drawn by four horses, and a relief of two seated figures on a cart drawn by mules, with a man with a whip, a man at the left and a man raising a tablet. At the foot a long ceremonial car with garlands and masks carries three seated men, drawn by oxen and led by a soldier with a shield and a cloaked spearman.

The captions read "Antonines Pillar" and "Antonine's Pillar" (twice) under the ox carts, "Maffei" under the medallion, "Meurisse" under the tombstone, "Trajan's Pillar" under the cart with soldiers and "Beger" under the relief with mules. The tombstone is lettered D M NOCTVRNIO NOCTVRNIANO MEROCILA CONIVX POSVIT, and the relief M ANTO FEL. The figures are numbered 1 to 8, with 5 twice, nine numbers in all. The corners read "Vol IV" at foot left, "Plate 41" at foot right and "Page 124" at top right.

"Antonine's Pillar" is the column of Marcus Aurelius in Rome, called the Antonine pillar by Montfaucon, and "Trajan's Pillar" is Trajan's Column in Rome. Bernard de Montfaucon (1655 to 1741), a French Benedictine monk and scholar, published L'Antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures in Paris in 1719. This English translation by David Humphreys was printed in London by J. Tonson and J. Watts in 1722; volume four includes carriages among its subjects.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.