According to the 1976 exhibition catalogue for Titian and the Venetian Woodcut quoted extensively in Christie’s lot description, Titian either drew the extraordinarily dynamic scene and atmospheric textures of this monumental, 12-panel woodblock print on a full-scale cartoon, or on the blocks themselves. They were then carved and first printed by Domenico delle Greche around 1514-15. This deeply impressed early print in rare condition sold in 2013 for $854,500.
The ambition and majesty of Titian’s woodblock print meant that it was reproduced for decades, long after the blocks themselves had become worn and wormholed. Even so, imagine the thrill someone must have gotten in 1549 to assemble this scene of Pharaoh’s army drowned in a turbulent sea. But imagine the ache of having only nine of twelve panels survive nearly 500 years. Have the odds of successfully scouring the earth to find three loosie replacements ever been so harshly priced into an auction result? Did whoever bought this incomplete set ten years ago for just GBP 5,000 have any victorious updates to share with us about their quest? I tell you, if I had the missing plate of the sea that @octavio-world posted, the best block in the whole thing, I would definitely keep it, not sell it to you.