David and Goliath, after Giulio Romano

When Giulio Romano brought recent Roman style to the service and pleasure of the Gonzaga family at Mantua, he included the newly coined system of reproductive engraving. As Raphael had collaborated with Raimondi and his pupils, so Giulio employed Scultori to interpret and disseminate his designs. Scultori in turn trained the next generation of engravers, including Giorgio Ghisi, and established Mantua as a disproportionately influential center of the medium. This print interprets a fresco lunette in Giulio’s decoration of the Palazzo del Te, the ducal villa on the outskirts of the city. It is not only the largest and most dramatic of Scultori’s prints, but in this impression, stunning in its sculptural force and lustrous surface.