Ornamental oval with Mars standing under a canopy, engraving by Etienne Delaunne, after 1557

Engraving

'He found his models in the work of such Italian artists of the Fontainbleau School as Rosso Fiorentino, Nicolò del'Abate and especially Luca Penni, rather than that of Francesco Primaticcio...

Delaune was a skilled practitioner of the Italianate style favoured at the Valois court. His engravings of mythological and allegorical subjects, and especially his ornamental designs for jewellery and goldsmiths' work, of great precision despite their small dimensions, contributed to the spread of the Fontainbleau style among a wide variety of artists and craftsmen in France and abroad.'

Marianne Grivel: "Delaune, Etienne" Grove Art Online. Oxford University Press, 20/12/2006

Published a total of around 450 prints. 'Many of Delaune's prints are small oval panels with figures allegorical of such themes as the senses, the months, hunting, the Gods, the Labours of Hercules, the virtues and the Bible. His figures are almost invariably elongated mannerist nudes.Delaune also published numerous small panels of elaborate and dense grotesque ornament, some oval, others rectangular....During his Strasbourg and and augsburg period Delaune published numerous dense grotesques for engraving or enamelling on pendants, crosses, miniature cases etc. some dated 1573, 1578 or 1579...'
Jervis p.145

The small size of this print, its oval format and the dark background, suggest that it was perhaps intended as a design for a piece of metalwork or jewellery. The combination of real and fantastical elements make it typical of grotesque-style subject matter. The figure of the god of war, Mars, is elongated in away that is characteristic of mannerism, a sixteenth-century style especially popular in France.

Etienne Delaune was born in Milan but made his career in France before going into exile to avoid religious persecution. He was a goldsmith and medallist, as well as a printmaker.

E.2620-1913