Michiel BUNEL (engraver, publisher and print merchant active in Antwerp during the first half of the 17th century) "Pietà" Original etching by a subject by Pietro Paolo Rubens (1577 - 1644) printed and published in Antwerp by Bunel himself and by Jacobus Peeters around the middle of the 17th century. Nice copy on thin laid paper bearing the “Lily and Band of Strasbourg” watermark similar to Churchill 430, attributable to the production of the Dutch paper mill Honig active in the second half of the seventeenth century, irregularly trimmed inside the impression of the slab but in any case without leaks, with few minimal edge defects such as tiny tears and specks but overall in excellent condition. The center of the composition is occupied by the body of Christ resting on a white sheet, Mary is standing behind her son and looks at the sky, on the left Saint Francis bows with his hands folded in contemplation of the lifeless body while in the foreground Mary Magdalene kneeling on the ground examines the nails of martyrdom, very close to her the crown of thorns. Rubens made the painting, a large canvas with a 420 x 332 cm ribbed shape, for the Capuchin Convent in Antwerp around 1624, today the work is part of the collections of the Musées Royaux des Beaux Arts de Belgique in Brussels. Rubens' own subject had already been recorded in 1628 (Antwerp 1603 - 1658) by Paulus Pontius, one of the most prestigious direct collaborators of the great master. Bibliography: Churchill "Watermarks in paper" Amsterdam 1967 No. 430. Hollstein "Dutch and Flemisch Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts" Amsterdam 1976 vol.17 n ° 14. (Pontius) Schneevoogt "Catalog des estampes gravées d'après PPRubens" Haarlem 1873 n ° 371. Thieme - Becker "Allgemeines Lexicon der bildenden Kunstler" Leipzig sd vol.V pag.224. www.fine-arts-museum.be/rubens Measurements in mm: 487ca x 385ca the sheet