?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
ALBRECHT ALTDORFER Horatius Cocles Leaping into the Tiber.
Engraving, circa 1525. 66x37 mm; 2 5/8x1 1/2 inches, narrow to thread margins. A very good, dark and early impression of this extremely scarce engraving with strong contrasts and no sign of wear.
According to the St. Louis Museum of Art, where there is another impression of this engraving by Altdorfer (1480-1538), "This print depicts a moment of extraordinary patriotic courage from ancient history. Altdorfer represented Roman general Horatius Cocles's climactic jump into the Tiber after he had single-handedly kept the Etruscans from crossing the bridge into Rome. His countrymen busily dismantled the bridge while Cocles kept the Etruscans at bay until the last fragment of the bridge collapsed, forcing him to jump.
Provenance: Nikolai Semyonovich Msolov, Moscow, inscription in ink verso (Lugt 1802).
