Roman Triumphal Chariots, Sacrificial Bulls and Coins, Montfaucon, 1722

This is an original antique copper engraving, uncolored, a double page folding plate in eight numbered figures. Across the top a frieze shows attendants with a round shield, a long handled mallet and an axe, two bulls covered with cloths decorated with leaves, and a bare chested attendant at the right. The large relief at the lower left shows a bearded figure in a chariot decorated with reliefs, crowned with a wreath by a winged Victory holding a palm, before a temple front; a trumpeter sounds under an arch and four horses are drawn up in file with an attendant at their heads. At the right a relief shows a carriage with a gabled top crowned by an eagle, drawn by horses, and two togate men, one holding a branch. Below are a small relief of a chariot, an oval gem with a soldier, an overturned chariot and its falling driver, a further chariot relief with soldiers, and three coins with chariots and Victories.

No source captions are engraved on this plate. Coin legends read PONTIF MAX TR P II COS II, ET COS, SPQR OPTIMO PRINCIPI and S C. The figures are numbered from 1 to 8. The corners are lettered "Voll IV" at foot left, "Plate 34" at foot right and "Page 102" at top right.

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. The English translation by David Humphreys, Antiquity Explained, and Represented in Sculptures, was printed in London by J. Tonson and J. Watts in 1722, and this plate belongs to its fourth volume. Volume four deals with war, including triumphs, trophies and carriages. 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 mixture of large relief and small roundels gives the sheet a pleasing balance.

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