Andrea Mantegna is, both by his art and his influence, the most
significant figure in early Italian engraving. His method or viewpoint
is a determining feature in much of the best work which was produced
during the last quarter of the fifteenth century, until the influence
of Raphael, transmitted through Marcantonio, with a technical mode
based upon the manner of Albrecht Dürer, completely changed the current
of Italian engraving, seducing it from what might have developed into
an original creative art, and condemned it to perpetual servitude as
the handmaid of painting.
Andrea Mantegna, born in 1431, at Vicenza, and consequently
Pollaiuolo’s senior by one year, was adopted, at the age of ten, by
Squarcione, in Padua. Squarcione appears to have been less a painter
than a contractor, undertaking commissions to be executed by artists in
his employ. He was likewise a dealer in antiquities, and in his shop
the young Mantegna must have met many of the leading humanists who had
made Padua famous as a seat of classical learning. From them he drew
in and absorbed that passion for imperial Rome which was to color his
life and his art. His dream was of forms more beautiful than those of
everyday life, built of some substance finer and less perishable than
the flesh of frail humanity; and as years went by his work takes on, in
increasing measure, a grander and more majestic aspect. Fortunate for
us is it that in his mature period, when his style was fully formed,
he himself was impelled, by influences of which later we shall speak,
to take up the graving tool and with it produce the seven imperishable
masterpieces which, beyond peradventure, we may claim as his authentic
work.
The _Virgin and Child_, the earliest of his engravings, can hardly
have been executed before 1475, and maybe not until after 1480, when
Mantegna had reached his fiftieth year. Mr. Hind points out that there
is a simplicity and directness about it which recalls quite early work,
similarly conceived, such as the _Adoration of the Kings_ of 1454;
but the reasons which he advances are of equal weight in assigning it
to a later date, and I am convinced that the intensity of mother-love
expressed in the poise and face of the Virgin betokens a deeper
feeling, a broader humanity, than one normally would expect in a youth
of twenty-three, even though he be illumined with that flame of genius
which burned so brightly in Mantegna.
[Illustration: ANDREA MANTEGNA. VIRGIN AND CHILD
Size of the original engraving, 9¾ × 8⅛ inches
In the British Museum]
[Illustration: ANDREA MANTEGNA. BATTLE OF THE SEA-GODS
Size of the original engraving, 11⅝ × 17 inches.
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]
Technically, the plate plainly shows the hand of an engraver not yet
master of his medium. It is marked with all the characteristics which
we associate with Mantegna’s work: the strong outline, ploughed with
repeated strokes of a rather blunt instrument into a plate of unbeaten
copper or some yet softer metal; the diagonal shade lines widely
spaced; and the light strokes blending all into a harmonious whole. In
an impression of the first state, in the British Museum, there is a
tone, similar to sulphur-tint, over portions of the plate, noticeably
in the faces of the mother and child. How it was produced is still a
matter of conjecture, but that it adds much to the beauty of the print
is beyond question.
The _Bacchanalian Group with Silenus_ and the _Bacchanalian Group with
a Wine-Press_ (which, like the _Battle of the Sea-Gods_, may be joined
together so as to form one long, horizontal composition) show greater
skill on the part of the engraver. Mantegna’s increasing passion for
the antique is reflected in the standing figure to the left, who with
his left hand reaches up towards the wreath with which he is about
to be crowned, while resting his right hand upon a horn of plenty.
This figure is obviously inspired by the Apollo Belvedere, while the
standing faun, at the extreme right, filled with the sheer delight of
mere animal existence, is a delightful creation in Mantegna’s happiest
mood.
The two plates of the _Battle of the Sea-Gods_ may be assigned, on
technical grounds, to about the same period as the two Bacchanals.
The drawing which Durer made of the right-hand portion, as also of
the _Bacchanalian Group with Silenus_, both dated 1494, conclusively
prove that these engravings antedate the completion of the _Triumph
of Cæsar_. Though Mantegna borrowed his material from the antique, he
has so shaped it to his ends, so stamped upon it the impress of his
own personality, as to make of it not an echo of classic art, but an
original creation of compelling force and charm. “These are not the
mighty gods of Olympus but the inferior deities of Nature, of the Earth
and the Sea, who acknowledge none of the higher obligations and who
display unchecked their wanton elemental nature, giving a loose rein to
all the exuberance of their joy in living.... These creatures of the
sea frolic about in the water, turbulent and wanton as the waves....
The combat with those harmless-looking weapons is probably not meant to
be in earnest; a vent for their superfluous energy is all they seek.”[9]
[9] Andrea Mantegna. By Paul Kristeller. London; Longman’s Green & Co.
1901. p. 395.
To a somewhat later period belongs the _Entombment_. There is nothing
of the meek spirit of the Redeemer in this passionate plate. The hard,
lapidary landscape is in accord with the figures, which might, not
unfittingly, find a place upon some triumphal arch. Three crosses crown
the distant hill. At the right stands St. John, a magnificent figure,
giving utterance to his unspeakable grief, while the Virgin, sinking in
a swoon, is supported by one of the holy women.
Here is none of that tenderness which we associate with the divine
tragedy, none of that grace and beauty which inheres in the work of
many of the Italian painters of the Renaissance. All is stark and
harsh. It is not food for babes, but it is superb.
_The Risen Christ Between Saints Andrew and Longinus_ is Mantegna’s
last engraving. Christ towers above the two subsidiary figures, with a
form and bearing which would better befit a Roman Emperor returning in
triumph. In this plate, above all others, Mantegna’s technique shines
forth as not only adequate, but as beyond question the best--perhaps
the only one--to convey his message. Translated into another mode, one
feels that it would lose much of its appeal. It has been suggested that
the engraving was made as a project for a group of statuary--perhaps
for the high altar of S. Andrea, in Mantua, raised above the most
precious relic possessed by the city, the Blood of Christ, brought
to Mantua by Longinus--a supposition borne out by the statuesque
impressiveness of the group and by the fact that Christ gazes
downwards, as though from a height.
Although 1480 is the earliest date to which we can assign the first
of Mantegna’s original engravings, there were in existence, at least
five years before that time, engravings by other hands after designs
by the master, and it may have been either to protect himself from
unauthorized and fraudulent copyists, or as an artistic protest against
the incapacity of his translators, that Mantegna was compelled to take
up the graver. There has come down to us a letter, dated September
15, 1475, addressed by Simone di Ardizone, of Reggio, to the Marquis
Lodovico, of Mantua, complaining to the prince of Mantegna’s behavior
towards him. His story was that “Mantegna, upon his arrival in Mantua,
made him splendid offers, and treated him with great friendliness.
Actuated by feelings of compassion, however, towards his old friend,
Zoan Andrea, a painter in Mantua, from whom prints (_stampe_),
drawings, and medals had been stolen, and wishing to help in the
restoration of the plates, he had worked with his friend for four
months. As soon as this came to Mantegna’s knowledge he proceeded to
threats, and one evening Ardizone and Zoan Andrea had been assaulted by
ten or more armed men and left for dead in the square.”
[Illustration: ANDREA MANTEGNA. THE RISEN CHRIST BETWEEN SAINTS ANDREW
AND LONGINUS
Size of the original engraving, 15½ × 12¾ inches
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]
[Illustration: SCHOOL OF ANDREA MANTEGNA. ADORATION OF THE MAGI
Size of the original engraving, 15⅛ × 10¾ inches
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]
The letter is “proof that, in Mantua, in the year 1475, two
professional engravers, one of whom clearly designates himself as
such, were at work.... It is clear that Mantegna had a very special
interest in the engravings and drawings which had been stolen from Zoan
Andrea, and which Ardizone, ‘out of compassion,’ helped to restore,
since he sought by force to impede the engraver’s work. His anger can
also be explained by the supposition that Zoan Andrea’s engravings
were facsimiles of his own drawings which the former had succeeded in
obtaining possession of and had used as designs for his engravings; and
that being unable to win Ardizone’s assistance in his work Mantegna
thought himself obliged to protest, by violent means, against this
infringement of his artistic rights.”[10]
[10] Andrea Mantegna By Paul Kristeller. London. 1901. pp. 381-384.
It is probable that to this drastic and effectual method of protecting
against piracy his own artistic property we owe the two renderings,
both incomplete, of the _Triumph of Cæsar_. One may well be the series
upon which Zoan Andrea and Ardizone were working when Mantegna brought
their labors to an untimely close; whereas the second series, although
authorized by Mantegna himself, may have seemed to him, not without
just cause, so to misinterpret his original drawings as to impel him
to abandon the project and, in future, engrave his own designs. The
_Triumph_ series naturally remained incomplete, since, like every great
artist, Mantegna would hardly feel disposed to repeat, in another
medium, a subject which he had already treated. Of the _Triumph_
plates, the _Elephants_ approximates most closely Mantegna’s undoubted
work; but the drawing lacks distinction, and there is a feeling of
“tightness” throughout the whole plate, which makes it impossible
to attribute the engraving to Mantegna’s own hand. The plate which
immediately follows--_Soldiers Carrying Trophies_--was left unfinished.
The subject is repeated in the reverse sense and with the addition of
a pilaster to the right. This pilaster is probably Mantegna’s original
design for the upright members dividing the nine portions of the
painted _Triumphs_, since the procession is supposed to pass upon the
further side of a row of columns, the figures and animals being so
arranged as to extend over one picture to the next, with a sufficient
space between them for the introduction of the pilaster.
[Illustration: ZOAN ANDREA (?). FOUR WOMEN DANCING
Size of the original engraving, 8⅞ × 13 inches
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]
[Illustration: GIOVANNI ANTONIO DA BRESCIA. HOLY FAMILY WITH SAINTS
ELIZABETH AND JOHN
Size of original engraving, 11⅞ × 10⅛ inches
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]
The _Adoration of the Magi_, which for some reason likewise remained
unfinished, is taken directly from the central portion of the triptych
in the Uffizi. The engraving, aside from its intrinsic beauty, is of
especial interest as affording an example of the method adopted by
Mantegna and his School. The structural lines are deeply incised, in
many cases by repeated strokes of the graver. The diagonal shading is
then added and the plate carried forward and completed, bit by bit.
This engraving, at one time accounted an original work by the master
himself, has received of recent years more than its merited share of
harsh criticism. It obviously falls far short, in beauty, of Mantegna’s
painting; but, for all that, it preserves many of the essential
qualities of its immediate original, and one cannot but admire the
manner in which an engraver, certainly not of the first rank, has
captured the spirit of humility and adoration, eloquent in every line
of the king at the left, humbly bending to receive the benediction of
the Christ Child.
By an engraver of the Mantegna School, perhaps ZOAN ANDREA,
working in Mantegna’s manner and after his design for the _Parnassus_
in the Louvre, is _Four Women Dancing_--one of the most charming and
graceful prints of the period. It differs in many particulars from the
painting (assigned to the year 1497) and almost certainly translates
Mantegna’s drawing, rather than the painting itself.
To GIOVANNI ANTONIO DA BRESCIA, of whose life, apart from what
we may learn from a study of his work, we know substantially nothing,
may be attributed the _Holy Family with Saints Elizabeth and_ _John_,
based upon a design by Mantegna, of about 1500, and probably engraved
at a date prior to Mantegna’s death, September 13, 1506. At a later
period, Giovanni came under the influence of Marcantonio Raimondi,
whose style he imperfectly assimilated.
In the British Museum there is a unique impression of a _Profile Bust
of a Young Woman_, which has been ascribed, with some show of reason,
to LEONARDO DA VINCI. Its intrinsic beauty might lend some
color to this attribution, were it not that, even in its re-worked
condition, the texture and flow of the young woman’s abundant tresses,
the treatment of the flowing ribbons, and the delicate shading in the
face and upon the garment, betray the hand of the trained engraver.
NICOLETTO ROSEX DA MODENA was working from about 1490 to
1515. He engraved almost a hundred plates, the majority of them being
presumably from his own designs, though in the _Adoration of the
Shepherds_ the influence of Schongauer is markedly apparent, and in
_Fortune_ and _St. Sebastian_ the inspiration of Mantegna is clearly to
be seen.
[Illustration: SCHOOL OF LEONARDO DA VINCI. PROFILE BUST OF A YOUNG
WOMAN
Size of the original engraving, 4⅛ × 3 inches
In the British Museum]
[Illustration: NICOLETTO ROSEX DA MODENA. ORPHEUS
Size of the original engraving, 9⅞ × 6¾ inches
In the British Museum]
The group of trees in the _Fate of the Evil Tongue_ is borrowed from
Dürer’s print of _Hercules_, while the _Turkish Family_ and the _Four
Naked Women_--the last-named being dated 1500--are copies of Dürer’s
engravings. Vedriani, writing of Nicoletto as a painter, speaks
of him as “chiefly distinguished in perspective,” and among the most
charming of his plates in which this quality is seen is _Orpheus_.
The bare tree is suggestive of Martin Schongauer, while the birds and
beasts, including a dog, a peacock, a weasel, a monkey playing with
a tortoise, a squirrel, a snake, a piping bird, two rabbits, a fox,
and a stag, not to speak of the ducks and swans in the water, though
not copied from northern originals, have all the charm and life-like
quality which we find in the work of German engravers such as The
Master of St. John the Baptist and The Master E. S. of 1466.
Concerning JACOPO DE’ BARBARI there is a wealth of
biographical material, in contrast with the meagerness of our knowledge
concerning the earlier Italian engravers. Born at Venice, between
1440 and 1450, he is known to have worked between 1500 and 1508 for
the Emperor and various other princes in different towns of Germany.
He was at Nuremberg in 1505, and in 1510 he was in the service of
the Archduchess Margaret, Regent of the Netherlands, while, in the
inventory of the Regent’s pictures of 1515-1516, he is referred to as
dead.
Not one of the thirty engravings by Jacopo is signed with his name,
initials, or any form of monogram, nor does any of them bear a date.
His emblem is the caduceus, which appears on the greater number of his
prints; and those upon which it is lacking can readily be identified
by his individual style. This style undergoes certain modifications
with the passing years. In the early period, the shading, for the most
part, is in parallel lines, which follow the contour of the figure, the
figure itself being long and sinuous. In his middle and later period he
indulged more freely in cross-hatching, and the faces are modelled with
greater delicacy.
Stress has been laid upon the influence exerted by Jacopo upon
Dürer’s engraving; but with the exception of the _Apollo and Diana_
this influence is theoretical rather than artistic. Dürer, in one
of the manuscript sketches, dated 1523, for his book _The Theory of
Human Proportions_, writes: “Howbeit, I can find none such who hath
written aught about how to form a canon of human proportion, save one
man--Jacopo by name, born at Venice, and a charming painter. He showed
me the figures of a man and a woman, which he had drawn according to a
canon of proportions, so that, at that time, I would rather have seen
what he meant than be shown a new kingdom.... Then, however, I was
still young and had not heard of such things before. Howbeit, I was
very fond of art, so I set myself to discover how such a canon might be
wrought out.” Dürer undoubtedly refers to the period of his first visit
to Venice, and it is, accordingly, in Dürer’s earliest plates that
we see most clearly the influence of the older master on his technical
method. Dürer soon outstripped Jacopo in everything that pertains to
the technical side of engraving and worked out for himself a method
which, for his purpose, was substantially perfect.
[Illustration: JACOPO DE’ BARBARI. APOLLO AND DIANA
Size of the original engraving, 5¾ × 3⅞ inches.
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]
[Illustration: JACOPO DE’ BARBARI. ST. CATHERINE
Size of the original engraving, 7⅛ × 4⅝ inches
In the British Museum]
In such plates as _Judith_ and _St. Catherine_, Jacopo’s love for long,
flowing lines finds its fullest expression. There is a grace about
these single figures which is not without appealing charm, though
obviously they leave something to be desired on the score of solidity
and structure.
GIROLAMO MOCETTO, born in Murano before 1458, was living at
Venice in 1514, where he died after 1531. According to Vasari, Mocetto
was, at some time, an assistant to Giovanni Bellini, whose influence
may be traced in his work. His engravings are unpleasing in style
and often clumsy in draughtsmanship. He owes such merit as he may
possess to the originals which he interpreted. There is a compelling
power in _Judith_, after Mantegna’s design, which atones for even so
shapeless a member as Judith’s right hand. The grandeur of the plate
is, however, derived from Mantegna. Mocetto has done little more than
traduce it; but, even so, the engraving is noteworthy, inasmuch as
it preserves for us a noble composition, of which otherwise we might
remain in ignorance. The _Baptism of Christ_ is adapted, with some
modifications, from Giovanni Bellini’s painting executed between 1500
and 1510. In the engraving, the landscape, which differs radically from
that in Bellini’s painting, may possibly be original with Mocetto,
though it recalls the work of Cima, whose _Baptism_, in S. Giovanni in
Bragora, Venice, was painted in 1494.
BENEDETTO MONTAGNA was, like Mocetto, painter as well as
engraver. His earliest engravings are executed in a large, open manner,
which can be seen to advantage in the _Sacrifice of Abraham_. The
outline is strongly defined and the shading chiefly in parallel lines.
Where cross-hatching is used, it is laid generally at right angles.
Later, Montagna modifies his style and adopts the finer system of
cross-hatching perfected by Dürer, whose influence, especially in the
backgrounds, is clearly to be traced, and whose _Nativity_, of the year
1504, Montagna copied in reverse. _St. Jerome Beneath an Arch of Rock_
belongs to this later period, and the plate is probably based upon a
painting by Bartolommeo Montagna, the engraver’s father.
GIULIO CAMPAGNOLA, born at Padua about 1482, is known to
have been working in Venice in 1507 and is assumed to have died
shortly after 1514. According to contemporary accounts, he was a
youth of marvellously precocious and varied gifts and promise. To his
musical and literary accomplishments, he added those of painter,
miniaturist, engraver, and sculptor.
[Illustration: GIULIO CAMPAGNOLA. CHRIST AND THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA
Size of the original engraving, 5⅛ × 7¼ inches
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]
[Illustration: GIULIO CAMPAGNOLA. GANYMEDE (First State)
Size of the original engraving, 6⅜ × 4⅞ inches
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]
His engravings betray markedly the influence of Giorgione, and his
manner of engraving may have been an attempt to imitate the rich
softness of that master’s painting. He worked out and perfected a
technical system all his own. In his earliest manner he works in pure
line, as in his copies of Dürer’s engravings and in such plates as the
_Old Shepherd_ and _St. Jerome_.
In the _Young Shepherd_, the _Astrologer_, and _Christ and the Woman of
Samaria_, the composition is first engraved in simple, open lines, with
little cross-hatching. The plate is then carried forward and completed
by a system of delicate flicks, so disposed as to produce a harmonious
result, obliterating substantially all trace of the preliminary line
work. In the third group, to which two prints belong--_Naked Woman
Reclining_ and _The Stag_--no lines at all are used, and the plate is
carried out, from first to last, in flick work.
Only one of Campagnola’s plates is dated--the _Astrologer_, of 1509.
In this he shows himself ripe, both as artist and as craftsman. To
an earlier period would seem to belong the _Ganymede_, in which the
landscape is a faithful copy of Dürer’s engraving of the _Virgin and
Child with a Monkey_. The place which, in the original engraving, was
occupied by the Virgin, is now filled by a clump of trees.
_St. John the Baptist_ is, all things considered, Campagnola’s
masterpiece. The figure is unquestionably based upon a drawing by
Mantegna, and has all the largeness and grandeur of style which
characterizes the work of that master. The landscape background may
be original with the engraver but it clearly shows the influence of
Giorgione. In this superb plate Campagnola’s method of combining line
work with delicate flick work can be studied at its best. The _Young
Shepherd_, known in two states--the first in pure line, the second
completed with flick work--is as charming and graceful as _St. John
the Baptist_ is monumental. It justly deserves the reputation and
popularity which it enjoys among print lovers.
_Christ and the Woman of Samaria_ is treated in a more open manner
than either of the two preceding engravings. The beautiful landscape,
as also the hill to the left, is entirely in line, while the flick
work upon the figures and garments and, even more noticeably, in the
foreground to the right, is of a more open character than that which
appears in the _Young Shepherd_. It may belong to the latter part of
Campagnola’s career as an engraver. There is an amplitude in the design
of the seated woman which suggests Giorgione and Palma, though one
cannot definitely name any painting by either of these masters from
which Campagnola has borrowed his figure.
[Illustration: GIULIO CAMPAGNOLA. ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST
Size of the original engraving, 13⅝ × 9½ inches
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]
[Illustration: GIULIO AND DOMENICO CAMPAGNOLA. SHEPHERDS IN A
LANDSCAPE
Size of the original engraving, 5¼ × 10⅛ inches
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]
The last of Campagnola’s plates, left unfinished at his death and
completed by DOMENICO CAMPAGNOLA, is _Shepherds in a Landscape_ or, as
it is sometimes called, the _Musical Shepherds_. The original drawing,
in reverse, for the right-hand half of this print is in the Louvre. It
is unquestionably by Giulio Campagnola; but, equally without question,
the left-hand portion of the engraving itself is by Domenico. Whether
Domenico was a close relative or merely a pupil of Giulio’s has not
been determined; but the _Shepherds in a Landscape_ conclusively proves
that he was at least the artistic heir of the older master. Domenico’s
style is in marked contrast to that of Giulio. Flick work is almost
absent from his engravings, which are executed in rather open lines,
more in the mode of an etcher than of an engraver working according
to established tradition. The skies, in particular, have a romantic
quality which is all their own, and which can be seen to advantage in
the _Shepherd and the Old Warrior_, dated 1517.
MARCANTONIO RAIMONDI, born in Bologna about 1480, for over
three centuries enjoyed a reputation eclipsing that of any other
Italian master. Of recent years, however, upon insufficient grounds,
he has been somewhat pushed aside and belittled as a “reproductive
engraver,” his critics wilfully forgetting the fact that, with the
exception of Pollaiuolo and Mantegna, the Italian School is, in the
main, derivative, and cannot boast of any original engravers of
world-wide fame, such as Schongauer or Dürer. But Marcantonio was far
from being a mere translator of alien works. “He is like some great
composer who borrows another’s theme only to make it his own by the
originality of his setting.”[11]
[11] Marcantonio Raimondi. By Arthur M. Hind. The Print-Collector’s
Quarterly, Vol. 3, No. 3. p. 276.
The earliest influence which we may trace in Marcantonio’s work is
that of the famous goldsmith and painter, Francesco Francia, with whom
Marcantonio served his apprenticeship. Certain nielli, among them
_Pyramus and Thisbe_ and _Arion on the Dolphin_, have been assigned to
the young Marcantonio and attributed to this period of his life.
_St. George and the Dragon_ is strongly reminiscent of the niello
technique, with its dark shadows, against which the figures stand out
in relief. The landscape is clearly borrowed or adapted from engravings
in Dürer’s earlier period, the trees at the left, in particular,
recalling the _Hercules_.
[Illustration: MARCANTONIO RAIMONDI. ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON
Size of the original engraving, 11⅞ × 8¾ inches
In the British Museum]
[Illustration: MARCANTONIO RAIMONDI. BATHERS
Size of the original engraving, 11¼ × 9 inches
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]
[Illustration: MARCANTONIO RAIMONDI. ST. CECILIA
Size of the original engraving, 10¼ × 6⅛ inches
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]
[Illustration: MARCANTONIO RAIMONDI. DEATH OF LUCRETIA
Size of the original engraving, 8½ × 5¼ inches
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]
To this early period likewise belongs _Pyramus and Thisbe_, which bears
the earliest date--1505--which we find upon any of his engravings.
It may well have been executed during his residence in Venice,
between 1505 and 1509.
The _Bathers_, of 1510, is an artistic record of Marcantonio’s visit to
Florence, on his way to Rome. The figures are taken from Michelangelo’s
cartoon of the _Battle of Pisa_; but the landscape, including the
thatched barn to the right, is a faithful copy, in reverse, of Lucas
van Leyden’s plate of _Mahomet and the Monk Sergius_; for Marcantonio,
like all great artists, freely borrowed his material wherever he found
it, shaping it to his own ends.
According to Vasari, it was the _Death of Lucretia_, engraved shortly
after Marcantonio’s arrival in Rome, about 1510, after a drawing by
Raphael, which attracted the attention of that master and showed him
how much he might benefit by the reproduction of his work. One would
be inclined to think that the _Death of Dido_ rather than the _Death
of Lucretia_ might have been the means of bringing about this artistic
collaboration; for, if Vasari is correct, the immediate result of
Raphael’s personal influence upon Marcantonio was harmful rather than
helpful, the _Lucretia_ by general consent being the finer plate of the
two.
It is significant that none of Marcantonio’s engravings interprets any
existing painting by Raphael. We may infer that the engraver worked
entirely after drawings supplied to him by Raphael--either drawings
made for the purpose of being interpreted in terms of engraving, or
the original studies for paintings, which, in their elaboration, were
subjected to many modifications and changes.
Among his most interesting engravings are _Saint Cecilia_, which may be
compared, or rather contrasted, with the famous painting in Bologna;
the _Virgin and Child in the Clouds_, which later appears as the
_Madonna di Foligno_; and _Poetry_, based on a study by Raphael for the
fresco in the Camera della Segnatura, in the Vatican.
The _Massacre of the Innocents_, usually accounted the engraver’s
masterpiece, is one of several subjects of which two plates exist.
Authorities disagree as to which is the “original,” but some
familiarity with both versions leads one to think that Marcantonio may
well have been his own interpreter. At least one cannot name certainly
any other engraver capable of producing either of the two versions of
the _Massacre of the Innocents_, in point of drawing or of technique.
Among Marcantonio’s portrait plates one of the most attractive is that
of _Philotheo Achillini_ (“The Guitar Player”), which is in his early
manner and probably dates from his Bolognese period. It may be based
upon a drawing by Francia, but the trees and distant landscape all show
markedly the influence of Dürer.
[Illustration: MARCANTONIO RAIMONDI. PHILOTHEO ACHILLINI
(“The Guitar Player”)
Size of the original engraving, 7¼ × 5¼ inches
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]
[Illustration: MARCANTONIO RAIMONDI. PIETRO ARETINO
Size of the original engraving, 7⅜ × 5⅞ inches
In the British Museum]
To a much later period, and engraved in Marcantonio’s most mature
manner, belongs the portrait of _Pietro Aretino_. Vasari refers to this
plate as “engraved from life,” but its richness and color would seem to
point to an original by Titian or Sebastiano del Piombo.
After the death of Raphael, in 1520, Marcantonio’s engraving undergoes
a change--a change for the worse, as might be expected, since a number
of his plates are interpretations of designs by Giulio Romano. There is
less care in the drawing, less delicacy in the management of the burin,
and, although we may pity him for the loss of all that he possessed
at the sack of Rome, in 1527, we cannot greatly regret that, as an
engraver, Marcantonio’s active life terminates with that date.