MIGNON, Jean (fl. 1535-55):

Cassandra stopping Deiphobus from killing their brother Paris, from a set of six Trojan War scenes
after Luca Penni

Etching, ca. 1544-45? Bartsch 46; Zerner 43; Jenkins Pt II, p. 308, JM 43
Provenance: Fürst zu Fürstenberg (without mark, according to sale catalogue at Sotheby’s London, December 9, 1982, lot 589, as Sinon in the Camp of the Trojans); Dr. Eric Stanley (not in Lugt)

A fine, early impression, trimmed between platemark and borderline. An interesting feature of this impression is that two pages of Gothic type in brown ink have offset onto the verso, raising the question of whether book-printing was taking place in the same Fontainebleau workshop as the engraving was proofed in. A couple of printer’s creases and an inconspicuous central vertical crease, a little skinning in two places not affecting the recto, the tip of the lower right corner reinforced on the verso, otherwise in exceptionally good condition.
321 x 440-45mm.
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This subject was until recently misidentified as The Treacherous Sinon brought into the Camp of the Trojans. Instead, this scene, the fourth in the six-plate story of the Trojan War, captures a life-or-death moment when Cassandra, with her sixth sense, realizes that it is her long-lost brother Paris who has just won in the funeral games and that he is at risk of being killed by their brother Deiphobus. The handsome Paris, who triggered ten years of war by claiming Helen for himself, crouches defenceless in the centre of the action.
Jean Mignon is one of three etchers responsible for the greater part of the printed output of the School of Fontainebleau, executed over just a few years. He was the chief interpreter of the designs of Luca Penni, five of whose preparatory drawings for this set survive . Etching, with its lighter touch, dominated in this courtly artistic milieu rather than the more typical engraving technique.