print
- Museum number
- 1834,0804.342
- Description
-
A crowned poet, possibly Virgil, in contemplation at the tomb of Apelles in a landscape
Engraving
- Production date
- 1500-1510
- Dimensions
-
Height: 212 millimetres
-
Width: 148 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- According to Hind, the figure is copied in reverse from the philosopher in Filippino Lippi's fresco of the 'Triumph of Thomas Aquinas' in S.Maria sopra Minerva in Rome. That is datable c.1489/93.
Oskar Bätschmann has noted that Peter Lüdemann makes a convincing case for the iconography of the print: rather than Apelles contemplating a geometrical tablet, as had previously been thought, he has persuasively argued that the standing figure, crowned with laurel, is a poet - possibly Virgil - in silent admiration at the tomb of Apelles (described as 'poeta tacentes' in the inscription).
Lit: Peter Lüdemann, 'Der Dichter am Grab des Malers. Randbemerkungen zu Nicoletto da Modenas Apelles und Giorgiones Tempesta', in "Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch", 58 (2007), pp. 255-264; Oskar Bätschmann and Christoph Schäublin (eds.), "Leon Battista Alberti: Das Standbild, Die Malkunst, Grundlagen der Malerei", 2nd edition, Darmstadt, 2001, pp. 104-5, fig. 38.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1834
- Acquisition notes
- The varied and important prints inventoried as 1834,0804.1 to 356 were all purchased by Ottley in the third part of the Stowe sale, beginning on 14 July 1834. He bought 50 lots which cost the BM a total of £93 4s. His purchases were also listed in the 1837 inventory under the numbers Kk,7.1 to 277 and Kk,8.1 to 78. The order of the inventory listing does not follow that of the 1834,0804 register. The records have been edited to make the 1834,0804 number the prime number, and the Kk,7 8 numbers have been recorded as additional numbers. (AVG 2019)
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1834,0804.342
- Additional IDs
-
Other BM number: Kk,8.15
