Past Exhibitions: 2005

Italian Renaissance Prints

September 17–December 11, 2005

Italian artists of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries embraced the emerging media of copper engraving and woodcuts as ways of creating multiple impressions of a single work of art. They often copied the masterpieces of prominent painters of the day, such as Raphael, Andrea Mantegna, and Giulio Romano. While the proliferation of such prints increased the fame of painters, the engraver's own virtuosity often turned the prints themselves into fascinating works of art in their own right, full of original and expressive detail and nuance. This exhibition looks at the practice of wood and copper engraving in Florence, Mantua, Venice, and Rome through twenty stellar examples by master printmakers such as Domenico Campagnola, Marcantonio Raimondi, and Diana Scultori.

Marcantonio Raimondi Italian, ca. 1475-before 1534 Crouching Venus, ca.1505-1506 engraving on laid paper Museum Purchase, 1984/1.289

Zoan Andrea Italian, active ca. 1475-ca. 1519 Descent into Limbo, ca. 1475-1480 engraving on laid paper Museum Purchase made possible by the Friends of the Museum of Art, 1979/1.159

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