Roman Officers in Cuirass and Cloak, Montfaucon Copper Engraving, 1722

This is an original antique copper engraving, uncolored, a single page plate from the fourth volume of Montfaucon's Antiquity Explained, printed in London by J. Tonson and J. Watts in 1722. Six numbered figures stand across the sheet in two rows. Figure 1 is a bearded man in an elaborately worked cuirass with figured shoulder pieces and lappets, a short baton in his hand and an ornamented headdress, wearing laced boots. Figure 2 is a bearded man in a cuirass with his arm around a woman who stands beside him, with a helmet and a sword set at their feet on the base. Figure 3 is a soldier in a cap and loincloth, otherwise bare, with a spear and an oval shield. Figures 4, 5 and 6 are statues: a man in cuirass and cloak with one arm raised, a young man in a cloak holding a sword with his arm lifted, and a bearded man in a cuirass decorated with a bird, his hand on a sword hilt.

The sources are engraved beneath the figures: "de Maximis" under figure 1, "Boissard" in a small cartouche under figure 2, "Cosmas Ægyptius" under figure 3, and "Raccolta Maffei" under each of figures 4, 5 and 6. The corners are lettered "Page 11" at top right, "Vol. IV." at foot left and "Plate 1" at foot right. There is no engraver's signature.

Bernard de Montfaucon (1655 to 1741) was a French Benedictine monk and scholar whose L'Antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures appeared in Paris in 1719. This English translation by David Humphreys was printed in London by J. Tonson and J. Watts. Volume four deals with war, and Montfaucon set figures copied from monuments, coins, gems and earlier antiquaries side by side, naming each source.

The upright sheet, with its ranks of standing figures, suits a study or library wall.

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