Audran after Spada Aeneas saving his father {1879} NGV [PR]

Audran, Gérard (1640-1703), after Spada, Leonello (1576-1622; Italian)
Aeneé suavant son père de l’embrazement de Troye [Aeneas saving his father from burning Troy]
Engraving and etching
Gift of George Collins Levey, 1879
National Gallery of Victoria (p.183.15-1)

= Levey gift, cat.34

The inscription identifies the source as a painting already in the French royal collection under Louis XIII (via Cardinal Richelieu, 1642), previously thought to be by Domenichino, but now identified as the work of Spada, c.1615: see comparative reproduction below. It illustrates Virgil’s Aeneid II: 705-29, containing Aeneas’ account of his flight from Troy, carrying his father Anchises on his shoulders, and accompanied by his wife Creusa and son Ascanius.

For Audran, one of the most talented engravers employed by Louis XIV, see linked artist entry.

For another pre-Felton engraving illustrating the same story, see * Carracci (Agostino) after Barocci Aeneas bearing his father Anchises {by 1894} Loc? [PR].

[comparative reproduction: Spada’s Louvre canvas]

Refs.

Not listed in NGV 1894 or 1905

For the NGV impression, see https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/37810/ (as by an unknown engraver after Domenichino; not reproduced) 

The source painting is identified as by Domenichino in the early lists of the Tableaux du roi: see Duplessis Cabinet du roi (1869), p.6 (1677 list, no.13) and Suite et Arrangement (1727), p.2. For the Spada attribution and a reproduction, see Louvre Catalogue II (1981), p.240 (Inv.680); see also https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:L_Spada_Eneas_y_Anquises_1615_Louvre.jpg (with reproduction shown here)