L'entrainement des chiens à la chasse aux cerfs

Authentic original engraving executed in burin after a 16th-century drawing by Johannes Stradanus.
Proof on watermarked laid paper, work from the late 16th or very early 17th century.
Artists' signatures in the plate.
Latin legend in the lower part of the engraving.
Manuscript translation in old handwriting under the plate mark: "Des chasseurs par le commandement du roi de France cherchent beaucoup de fientes de cerfs et donnent les crottes des jeunes cerfs aux chiens afin que par l'odeur ils apprennent à connaitre l'âge des cerfs.." ["Hunters by command of the king of France search for much deer dung and give the droppings of young deer to the dogs so that by scent they learn to know the age of the deer"].
Watermark visible by transparency.
The margins of the engraving have been backed with small pieces of old laid paper pasted to the edges on the reverse, otherwise fine condition for this very rare engraving.
Johannes Stradanus, known as Giovanni Stradano or Jan van der Straet, is a Flemish painter and engraver, born in Bruges in 1523 and died in Florence on February 11, 1605.
After beginning to learn painting from his father, and following his father's death, he continued his training in the workshop of Maximiliaan Frank (from 1535 to 1537), then in that of Pieter Aertsen in Antwerp (from 1537 to 1540). In 1545, he was received as a free master in the guild of Antwerp painters. He then began a journey through Europe: in France, then in Italy, where he first stayed in Venice, before settling in Florence. He worked there for Cosimo I de' Medici and collaborated with Giorgio Vasari for the decoration of the Studiolo of Francesco I de' Medici, and for that of the Clement VII hall of the Palazzo Vecchio. In 1565, he was part of the teams of painters and sculptors charged, under the direction of Giorgio Vasari, with creating the gigantic decoration planned for the entry into Florence of Joanna of Austria, on the occasion of her marriage to Francesco I de' Medici. Greatly influenced by the Mannerists, including Michelangelo, Johannes Stradanus contributed to the development of great Italian history painting. He painted several altarpieces for Florentine churches. He also stayed in Rome from 1550 to 1553 and in Naples in 1576. After a stay in Antwerp in 1578, he devoted a large part of his activity to engraving.
Philippe Galle, born in Haarlem in 1537 and died in Antwerp in March 1612, is a Flemish engraver, member of a famous family of engravers. He practiced copper engraving, drawing, engraving commerce, publishing and writing. He trained with Hieronymus Cock in Antwerp, where he engraved drawings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, notably the series of the Seven Deadly Sins. He then became the engraver of Maarten van Heemskerck. From 1557, he owned his own workshop, which was frequented by his sons, Theodore and Cornelius, as well as by his son-in-law, Adriaen Collaert, the Wierix brothers, Hendrick Goltzius, Crispin de Passe the Elder and other members of the Collaert family. His workshop was at the center of Antwerp engraving production. Philippe Galle created some of his most admirable works on projects by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (The Alchemist, 1558), Jan van der Straet, Franz Floris (Lot's Daughters) and Gillis Congnet (Aenevm Saecvlvm and the four ages of humanity, 1575).