Giuseppe Maria MITELLI (Bologna 1634 - 1718) "The Adoration of the Shepherds" Original etching in octagonal format, signed in the lower right plate "Joseph Ma. Mitellus del. et Sculp. " and dated in the lower center in 1680, from a painting by Paolo Caliari known as Veronese. Nice copy printed on thin laid paper with a portion of an unidentified watermark in the lower right corner, irregularly trimmed just to the impression of the plate, slightly burnished and with very small and irrelevant foxing points in addition to a tiny hole ( about 1 mm) under the neck of the ox, on the whole, given the high degree of rarity, in an excellent general state of conservation. The original painting by Veronese had been made, together with two others depicting the Annunciation and the Assumption of the Virgin, for the ceiling of the Church of Santa Maria dell'Umiltà in Venice around 1568, in the Napoleonic era, following the suppressions, they had been relocated to various locations up to Vienna, after the First World War they were returned to Venice and today adorn the Basilica of Saints John and Paul. Bibliography: Bartsch "Le Peintre-Graveur" vol. 19 p. 272 No. 4. Measurements in mm: 415ca x 545ca (the sheet)