Allegory of Birth, after Giulio Romano

This composition corresponds in every major element and most details to an engraving by Giorgio Ghisi. The drawing’s highly finished technique, similar size, and of course reversal of direction indicate that even though its design lacks the usual signs of being transferred to a copper plate, it was the immediate model for the print. The ultimate source of the composition is a fresco of around 1531 in the Loggia of the Grotto in the Palazzo del Te, Giulio Romano’s principal project for Federigo Gonzaga at Mantua. Part of an allegorical life cycle, the subject involves a mother expiring after childbirth, a personification consigning the newborn to winged genii, a crouching woman lighting a new torch from an old, and Aurora bringing a new day with her chariot. The drawing’s elaboration of the fresco shows considerable inventiveness, the technique is generally that of other models for engraving by Raphael and his followers, and the handling is quite accomplished, particularly in the heightened modeling of the figures and the loose description of the background in wash. The likelihood, however, is that this is not a drawing by Romano, rather by an artist trained in his circle or conceivably Ghisi himself.