Giulio Bonasone, printmaker

Giulio Bonasone relied on Marcantonio Raimondi’s system for engraving but developed a darker manner by placing lines more closely together and increasing ornamental flourishes. Later, engravers in Bonasone’s home city of Bologna would learn the art of engraving in part by retouching many of Bonasone’s copperplates.

The engraving depicts an episode described by Plutarch from the early history of Rome in which ten maidens, led by Cloelia, escaped imprisonment by the Etruscans by fleeing across the Tiber River. The original composition may have appeared on the frieze of a building as a relief sculpture by Polidoro da Caravaggio.