Raffle Ticket for the Painting of Venus and Cupid after Michelangelo

Inscription: From left to write and top to bottom, all written (engraved) in italics, except for proper names of proper names and places: 'N.o 33 [number in pen and ink] This check'd Ticket acknowledges the receit of Ten Guineas; & intitles ye Bearer to One Raffle / in Fifty for a Chance of winning the Original Gallery Picture of Venus & Cupid, herunder descri- / -bed, (the Figures whereof are likewise herunder represented, from an Etched Plate) w.ch is / to be Raffled for on Saturday the 29th of march 1735 [day, month and year in pen and ink], at twelve o' Clock at Noon, at Essex / House in Essex Street, in the Strand, in the Great Room on ye first Floor, fronting ye street: Where / it may be viewed any Day (Sundays & holy Days excepted) from eleven in the forenoon / to two in the afternoon, by the Bearer of an unnumbred blanc Ticket. /

Description of the Picture. /

Venus in a supine Posture, stealing a Dart out of Cupid's Quiver, with Masks and other / beautiful Ornaments, enigmatically representing (in the high Gusto of the Greek Antic) Love / & the Dramma of both Species; Painted by the highest Colourist of that Age, the famous Jacopo / da Puntormo; upon the Original Outline, or Sketch of the great Michael Angelo Buonaroti. / The two figures that compose the fore ground of the Picture, are both Naked, & for proportion / Tenderness & Softness of Flesh, may be justly said to surpass any thing of ye kind now extant. / Or, to use the Words of Carlo Morat, on his viewing & narrowly examining into this cele- / brated Piece many years since at Florence, where it was painted; Viz.t That it alone / were united, the Colouring of Corregio, the Drawing and Graces of Raphael, & the vast Design / & magnificent Invention of Michael Angelo Buonaroti; And that therefore the same did / by far transcend any other humane Performance in Painting, then in being. And it / seems G. Vasari (no mean Critic in that noble Science) was in his Time of the like / Opinion with this incomparable Roman Artist; For this excellent Author, treating of / & describing the Composition & Colouring of this very individual Picture, in his Life * [in the left margin, also engraved in the plate: 'See G. Vasari Vite / de Pittori, Printed at / Florence Anno 1568. Part the 3.d Pag 489, / & 490: and also Pag. / 777 in the same Vol.] / of the inimitable Buonaroti, Mentions it with such an Extasue, & Rapture of Surprize / & Admiration; That He publishes and proclaims it to the World, by no less an Epithet, / than that of Cosa Miracolosa, and Cosa Divina. /

N.B. Wee, the Subscribers hereto, do voluntarily, & purely in common Justice to the above describ'd Picture Certify, that Wee / have with the utmost care & attention examin'd & lookt into ye same. And yt therefore Wee do in ye most Solemn & sincere manner Affirm & / Aßert that it is an indubitable Original Picture: And having carefully & attentively examined & lookt into another Picture about 2 Miles from Town exactly representing ye same Figures & Ornaments in the former, Wee do therefore farther Certify that / ye said Picture out of Town is not only a plain & visible but also a very poor Copy of ye here above & here under represented. / Dec.r 16th. 1734. (...) Rob.t Browne (...) Charles Margas. (...) Gerard Vander Guch(...) /

Mich: Ang: Buonaroti inven & delineavit / Jac: Puntormo Pinxit / (...) / G. Vandergught / Fecit: aq: forti'

Vendor: Rockman Prints