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Unknown Maker

Hercules and Antaeus

Description

Maker

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

Title

Hercules and Antaeus

Year

1470-1500

Medium

  • engraving,
  • trimmed along and within platemark

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • engraving,
  • trimmed along and within platemark

Materials

engraving

Supports

  • Medium weight cream laid paper

Dimensions

33.3 x 24.1 cm (13 1/8 x 9 1/2 inches) (plate)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Lettered CL, within image: "Divo Herculi Invicto"

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Gift of Mrs. Murray S. Danforth

Object Number

28.047

Type

  • Prints

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

Several engravers worked directly with Andrea Mantegna, the famous court artist to the Marquis Ludovico Gonzaga at Mantua, to make engravings after the master’s designs. The Premier Engraver, whose identity has long been disputed, was one of the finest and most consistent of these engravers. Here, the technique of bold outlines and parallel hatching creates dramatic shadows that recall antique relief sculpture, which was much admired in Mantegna’s milieu.

The demi-god Hercules holds in mid-air the giant Antaeus, whose strength came from contact with the earth, and whom Hercules thus killed by suspending him above it. A rustic trophy in the form of a tree trunk slung with the skin of the slain Nemean lion (one of Hercules’ labors) at right above a quiver of arrows refers to Hercules’ earlier victories, as does the Latin motto “Divo Herculi Invicto” (to the invincible and godlike Hercules). The oily residue visible on the upper right of this engraving indicates that it was once displayed in an album whose owner frequently thumbed through its pages.

Helen M. Danforth
A Tribute
Jun 21, 1985 – Sep 08, 1985
Prints and Drawings with a Classical Reference
Dec 15, 1965 – Jan 09, 1966
Engravings of the 15th and 16th Centuries
Nov 10, 1948 – Feb 04, 1949

Use & Feedback

Image use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use.

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

Tombstone

Unknown Maker, engraver
After Andrea Mantegna (Italian, 1431-1506), designer
Hercules and Antaeus, 1470-1500
Engraving, trimmed along and within platemark
33.3 x 24.1 cm (13 1/8 x 9 1/2 inches) (plate)
Gift of Mrs. Murray S. Danforth 28.047

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Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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