This is a double-sized leaf with engraved images from  a rare and enormously important book for art history, archaeology, and European cultural history. It is from  Johann Joachim Winckelmann's "Monumenti Antichi Inediti," first published in 1767, a large compendium of Greek, Roman, and Egyptian friezes and sculptures. There were only 600 copies printed of the first edition, and given that this large sized leaf is printed on handmade, chainlined paper, I suspect that the  provenance is from that printing, meaning that it is very likely quite rare.

Winckelmann (1717-1768) was passionately dedicated to the study and celebration of classical antiquity, both as a scholar and as an admirer of  aesthetic beauty, which he saw as exemplified in the art of ancient Greece and Rome. These engravings are characteristic of Winklemann's themes, and of his emphasis on the (generally male) human body and nudes in the antique artworks he was rediscovering and documenting in Rome, Naples, and elsewhere.   These excellent engravings are quite likely the work of   Giovanni Battista Casanova (1730-1795), the painter and engraver, and brother of  Giacomo Casanova, the famous lover and adventurer. Giovanni Battista was assigned responsability for the illustrative plates for Winckelmann's ambitious book. 

So what do these 18th century images of antique art works represent, exactly? I found some scholarship about the book, and I am happy to share the info with you: We see here, top left, a terracotta fragment from the Vatican library. The subjects have not been identified.

Top right, from the Villa Albani, a dying king.

At the bottom, we see a complex image from a marble bas-relief at the Palazzo Mattei, Rome. The dense iconography features Peleus, in the center, walking towards the sleeping Thetis, lower left. Among the lovely naked ladies are Amphitrite, Earth, and Juno. A late 18th century or early 19th century English hand has made a manuscript annotation in pencil, at the right.  

These  beautiful images are printed in rather lovely reddish ink on an oversized sheet of paper measuring about 15.25 inches by 19.25 inches. Each engraving has left its own plate marks. There are faint traces of thumb marks, and a small crease, at the bottom where the page was turned by a reader or readers, and some paper toning. The fold in the middle is from the sheet's placement in the book. Condition is overall fresh and attractive. The  leaf would make an  impressive statement matted and framed, in my opinion. I see several other engravings of classical statuary by Giovanni Battista Casanova  offered on ebay in the $250-275 price range. This sheet, in its historic publishing context,  an authentic part of a compelling  rediscovery of ancient art, is something quite rare and meaningful, offered at a modest opening price. Shipping within the U.S. will be $7.