Roman Cavalry Battle Reliefs from Constantine's Arch, Montfaucon, 1722

This is an original antique copper engraving, uncolored, a double page folding plate showing Roman battle sculpture in five numbered figures. The wide upper band is a crowded battle relief: horsemen rear over fallen men and horses, a standing youth with a cloak over one shoulder fills the center, a rider at the right raises a curved sword, and helmeted soldiers with round shields crowd the edges. Below it, two framed reliefs show soldiers in armor with spears and standards, a woman holding a palm branch, and horsemen riding down fallen enemies; the left of the two has a group of standing soldiers beside the riders, the right is a close cavalry fight over the bodies of the fallen. A smaller relief at the lower left shows infantry and horsemen before tents with a fallen man at their feet, and at the lower right two carved chests on stepped bases are drawn in perspective, their sides filled with fighting figures.

The source captions are engraved beneath the figures. The upper band is lettered "Roman Marble", and each of the three framed reliefs is lettered "Constantines Arch". Constantine's Arch is the Arch of Constantine in Rome. The figures carry small numbers from 1 to 5. The corners are lettered "Vol IV" at foot left, "Plate 25" at foot right and "Page 72" at top right.

The plate comes from the fourth volume of Antiquity Explained, and Represented in Sculptures, the English translation by David Humphreys of the work of Bernard de Montfaucon (1655 to 1741), a French Benedictine monk and scholar. His L'Antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures appeared in Paris in 1719, and this edition was printed in London by J. Tonson and J. Watts in 1722. Volume four deals with war, and this plate belongs to its account of battle. Montfaucon drew together figures copied from ancient monuments, coins, gems and the publications of earlier antiquaries, and engraved the name of each source beside its figure.

The deep relief cutting and the dense crowd of riders give the sheet a strong presence on a wide wall.

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