The Prophet Joel, after Michelangelo

Ghisi’s engravings invest the grand design of mid-century Italian printmaking with the meticulous craft of Northern production. His rendering of six pendentives in the Sistine Ceiling, although likely an incomplete project, was the first substantial and worthy reproduction of Michelangelo's great invention. Each consists of two plates, which in the earliest impressions were printed on separate sheets, then trimmed and joined. This impression, from the top plate of one, is an extremely rare proof before the engraving was finished, therefore a fascinating demonstration of working method.