Unknown Maker

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.