The great Valentin Lefebre etched this image of David and Goliath in 1660.
He used a 1544 painting by Titian – 9 and 1/2 feet tall – as his model.
The above image was digitally reversed from
a very rare counterproof owned by Wizard Academy.
In the printing of engravings, a counterproof is a print taken from
an engraving just printed, while the ink is still wet, which produces
a copy in reverse but in the same position as that of the plate
from which the first was printed. This enables the engraver
to inspect the state of the copper plate.
The British Museum owns a small number of counterproofs by Lefebre,
but not of this particular print. It is entirely possible,
perhaps even likely, that Wizard Academy owns the only
remaining counterproof of this image in the world.
Here’s the original by Titian.
It hangs in the Basilica Santa Maria della Salute in Venice.