Antonio Maria Vassallo (ca. 1620 - ca. 1670) Painted, Edward Edwards (1738-1806) Drawn, John Boydell (1719-1804) Engraved, THE FINDING OF CYRUS /Finding CYRUS/, 1767

etching, copperplate/paper, 41.6 x 50.8 cm (plate imprint), 41.9 x 51.7 cm (sheet; trimmed around plate imprint)
below composition left: Benedetto Castiglione pinxit. / E. Edwards delin.t; right: John Boydell sculpsit & excudit
below the title and dedication: THE FINDING OF CYRUS. / From the Original Painting Painted by Benedetto Castiglione, / In the Collection of the Right Honourable the Earl of Oxford, at Houghton: / To whom this Plate is most Humbly Dedicated, by his Lordship's Most Obliged and Most Obedient Servant, JOHN BOYDELL
at very bottom left: N˚ 33 / Size of the Picture 2,.5 by 3,.7 in Length; in the middle publisher's address: Published by J. Boydell Engraver, in Cheapside, London, Jan.y 1st. 1767.
state of preservation very good

John Boydell is one of the most important British engraving publishers with an international reputation. The presented composition belongs to a series of engravings published by him in two volumes: "A Collection of Prints, Engraved after the Most Capital Paintings in England" (1769-1772). This monumental publication included 110 engravings, drawn according to sourced English collections of the most outstanding works of European painting. The painting, which Boydell transferred into an etching, was erroneously inscribed at the time in the oeuvre of Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (1609-1664). The author of the painting "Childhood of King Cyrus," created around the middle of the 17th century, is Antonio Maria Vassallo. The work belonged to the collection of Robert Walpole, Prime Minister of Great Britain. After his death, the collection was bought by Catherine the Great. The painting is kept in the Hermitage.