Unknown after Rubens Descent from the Cross {1868} NGV [PR]

Unknown engraver, after Rubens, Peter Paul (1577-1640; Flemish) 
Descent from the Cross
Engraving, 85.4 x 63 cm (sheet)
Presented by the Belgian Government 1868
National Gallery of Victoria (p.179.7-1)

This print reproduces Rubens’s early masterpiece, the central panel of his altarpiece for Antwerp Cathedral (1612-14).

The work has been engraved many times since the 17^th century, but in the absence of any identifying inscriptions, it is difficult to be specific about the origins of this large-scale impression.

Refs.

PF (1868); AR 1870-71, p.34: Engravings (framed): “proof before letters” (artist not named); not listed in NGV 1894 or 1905 

The NGV catalogue does not include a reproduction; author’s ID photo reproduced here

For the painting, see e.g. John Rupert Martin (ed.), Rubens: The Antwerp Altarpieces, Thames & Hudson, 1969. A Google search turns up numerous engravings; for a smaller but otherwise quite similar 19^th-century engraving, dating from 1862 (attributed to an engraver named C.Cook), see e.g. https://www.printsandephemera.com/ourshop/prod_5391274-The-Descent-from-the-Cross.html (image size given as 27.5 x 21 cm) [accessed 19 August 2019]