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Unknown Maker, Italian

The Elephants

Description

Maker

Unknown Maker, Italian, engraver
After Andrea Mantegna (Italian, 1431-1506), designer

Culture

Italian

Title

The Elephants
The Triumph of Julius Caesar

Year

ca. 1470-1500

Medium

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

Materials

engraving

Supports

Dimensions

Plate: 28.3 x 25.9 cm (11 1/8 x 10 3/16 inches)

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Mary B. Jackson Fund

Object Number

47.023

Type

Projects & Publications

Publications

  • Books

The Brilliant Line: Following the Early Modern Engraver, 1480-1650

Renaissance engravings are objects of exquisite beauty and incomparable intricacy that are composed entirely of lines. Artists began using this intaglio process in Europe as early as 1430. This captivating catalogue focuses on the height of the medium, from 1480 to 1650, when engravers made dramatic and rapid visual changes to engraving technique as they responded to the demands of reproducing artworks in other media. The Brilliant Line follows these visual transformations and offers new insight into the special inventiveness and technical virtuosity of Renaissance and Baroque (Early Modern) engravers. The three essays discuss how engraving’s restrictive materials and the physical process of engraving informed its visual language; the context for the spread of particular engraving styles throughout Europe; and the interests, knowledge, and skills that Renaissance viewers applied when viewing and comparing engravings by style or school.

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

The Brilliant Line
Following the Early Modern Engraver, 1480-1650
Sep 18, 2009 – Jan 03, 2010

Label copy

Giovanni Antonio da Brescia was one of Andrea Mantegna’s collaborators. He employed a signature return stroke, or zig-zag, to create continuous tone on his figures (evident on the ox’s back). The gray areas visible on the modeling of the central male figure suggest the use of a drypoint needle or a finer burin.

This print is based on one of a series of nine canvases made by Andrea Mantegna around 1500 portraying Julius Caesar’s Gallic triumph in a frieze-like format. Drawn from a variety of literary sources, principally Plutarch, Appian, and Suetonius, the Triumphs were less an accurate rendition of an historical event than a celebratory re-creation of an imagined Roman triumphal procession. The paintings were made famous in the Renaissance due to prints like this one that reproduced the original canvases.

Prints and Drawings with a Classical Reference
Dec 15, 1965 – Jan 09, 1966

Related Publications

Related Publications

  • Books

The Brilliant Line: Following the Early Modern Engraver, 1480-1650

Renaissance engravings are objects of exquisite beauty and incomparable intricacy that are composed entirely of lines. Artists began using this intaglio process in Europe as early as 1430. This captivating catalogue focuses on the height of the medium, from 1480 to 1650, when engravers made dramatic and rapid visual changes to engraving technique as they responded to the demands of reproducing artworks in other media. The Brilliant Line follows these visual transformations and offers new insight into the special inventiveness and technical virtuosity of Renaissance and Baroque (Early Modern) engravers. The three essays discuss how engraving’s restrictive materials and the physical process of engraving informed its visual language; the context for the spread of particular engraving styles throughout Europe; and the interests, knowledge, and skills that Renaissance viewers applied when viewing and comparing engravings by style or school.

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This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Unknown Maker, Italian, engraver
After Andrea Mantegna (Italian, 1431-1506), designer
The Elephants; The Triumph of Julius Caesar, ca. 1470-1500
Engraving, trimmed within platemark
Plate: 28.3 x 25.9 cm (11 1/8 x 10 3/16 inches)
Mary B. Jackson Fund 47.023

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