AGOSTINO DEI MUSI, CALLED VENEZIANO (CIRCA 1490-1536)

A naked witch astride a giant dinosaur's skeleton, accompanied by goats and nude men, one of whom is riding another, bird-like skeleton with two heads and four legs, all rushing along in a nocturnal procession - this engraving is undoubtedly one of the most bizarre compositions in the history of printmaking. The Mannerist painter and art theoretician Giampaolo Lomazzo (1538-92) mentioned it together with Dürer's Apocalypse and Knight, Death and the Devil (also in this sale) and Schongauer's Temptation of Saint Anthony as examples of nightmarish visions. He attributed the composition of the print, known as Lo Stregozzo ('The Witches' Train' or The Witch's Train) to Michelangelo and named Marcantonio Raimondi as the engraver. However he failed to recognise that the witch is in fact very closely based on Dürer's engraving The Witch, where the same figure is depicted riding backwards on a goat. Certainly a pastiche of many elements and influences, Lo Stregozzo is now unanimously attributed to Agostino Veneziano and stands as one of the strangest and most grandiose prints of its time, and a great example of mannerist eccentricity.