ITALIAN SCHOOL, 16TH CENTURY (after Michelangelo) Soldiers Bathing in the Arno (Climbers).
Engraving, after 1524. 330x446 mm; 13 3/4x17 1/2 inches, thread margins. A very good, well-inked, dark impression with strong contrasts.
This engraving is based on another engraving, with the subject in the opposite direction, by Agostino Veneziano (see Bartsch 423). Both engravings derive from a now lost cartoon for a fresco drawn by Michelangelo (1475-1564) illustrating a scene from the Battle of Cascina (July 28, 1364), which celebrated the Florentine victory of Siena, for a competition against Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) in the Salone dei Cinquecento of the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence.
