Siege Scene with Overlapping Shields at a Wall, Trajan's Column, 1722

This is an original antique copper engraving, uncolored, a double page folding plate from Montfaucon's Antiquity Explained, and Represented in Sculptures, printed in London by J. Tonson and J. Watts in 1722. Four numbered scenes are set on the sheet. In the small panel at the upper left helmeted soldiers with round shields gather, two of them clasping hands, while a broad stream pours down diagonally beside a row of round shields. In the small panel below it men stand at the left of a tree and soldiers with spears and shields at the right. The upper right scene shows helmeted soldiers with oval shields and a horseman at a wall, two of them holding up severed heads by the hair, bearded men in caps, a large bearded half figure in billowing drapery in the sky, a dragon standard and a banner. The broad lower scene shows bearded men in caps holding large ornamented oval shields up and overlapping at a wall, while helmeted men behind a parapet raise stones to throw down on them; fallen men lie underfoot and at the right men lift a limp body.

The captions are "Col. Antonine" under the lower of the two small left panels and "Col. Trajane" under the upper right scene and under the lower scene. "Col. Antonine" is the column of Marcus Aurelius in Rome, and "Col. Trajane" is Trajan's Column in Rome. The figures are numbered 1 to 4. The corners read "Page 70" at top right, "Vol IV" at foot left and "Plate 23" at foot right.

Bernard de Montfaucon (1655 to 1741) was a French Benedictine monk and scholar. His L'Antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures appeared in Paris in 1719; this English translation by David Humphreys, Antiquity Explained, and Represented in Sculptures, was printed in London by J. Tonson and J. Watts in 1722. The fourth volume is given over to war, and this plate belongs to its treatment of battle and siege. Montfaucon engraved the name of each source beside its figure.

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