print
- Museum number
- 1845,0825.475
- Description
-
Mercury; the deity in the sky identified by an inscription: 'MERCURIO' riding a chariot drawn by eagles; below the various artistic, literary and scientific activities shown in the setting of a Florentine street: on the left a goldsmith's workshop, two painters on a scaffold working on the façade of a palace and a sculptor carving a female bust; on the right two men reading with a clockmaker behing them and in the room above an organist; in the street in the centre a group of astrologists with an armillary sphere and two men at a table. c.1464
Engraving
- Production date
- 1464 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 324 millimetres
-
Width: 218 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- This unique print belongs to the so-called 'original' series of 'Planets', a group of engravings created probably around 1464 in a style called by Hind 'Fine Manner'. For this group see the entry for Hind A.III.1a (1845-8-25-474).
Colvin speculated that the goldsmith's shop depicted here might be that of Maso Finiguerra, an attractive hypothesis although totally without any evidence to support it. Hanging from a pole are three belts, such as those which Finiguerra is known to have supplied on more than one occasion for Cino di Filippo Ranuccini, but it is likely that similar objects were part of the standard products produced by a Florentine goldsmith. Someone in the shop is shown engraving a figure on a plate, perhaps in prepartion for creating a print such as this one. The impression bears a fleur-de-lys watermark (cf. Hind, 60, p. 326).
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2015-16 Nov - Apr, Brisbane, Queensland Museum, 'Medieval Europe'
2016 Oct – 2017 Feb, Spain, CaixaForum Madrid, Medieval Europe,
2017 Mar – Jun, Spain, CaixaForum Barcelona, Medieval Europe,
2017 Jul – Oct, Spain, CaixaForum Zaragoza, Medieval Europe.
2023 11 Feb-11 Jun, London, Victoria and Albert Museum, 'Donatello'
- Acquisition date
- 1845
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1845,0825.475