- Museum number
- 1846,0509.136
- Description
-
Venus reclining in a landscape, a nude seen from behind. 1510/5
Engraving with stipple
- Production date
- 1510-1515
- Dimensions
-
Height: 121 millimetres
-
Width: 182 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- This engraving has attracted much discussion on account of its technique, references and allusions. Campagnola's innovative use of stipple (fine dotting with the tip of the burin) enabled him to here create a rich, velvety texture befitting the sleeping nude. Catherine Whistler(2018, p.129) compares the effect achieved to that of the sfumato of Giorgione's paintings. The pose of the figure is generally agreed to have derived from the work of Titian. Dagmar Korbache (2015), however, has proposed that the figure could perhaps be a nymph, the female counterpart to a shepherd in Arcadia, rather than Venus.
Lit: D. Korbacher, `Poetic Printmaking: Arcadia and the Engravings of Giulio Campagnola`, in `Art in Print`, January - February 2015, vol. iv, no. 5, pp.7-8; C. Whistler, 'Disegno a stampa, diesgno a mano and the development of the independent landscape drawing in Renaissance Venice', Jenseits des disegno: Die Entstehung selbststandiger Zeichnungen in Deutschland und Italian im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert, (Petersburg, 2018), pp.129-146
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1983/4 Nov-Mar, London, Royal Academy, Genius of Venice
1987/8 Nov-Feb, London, V&A, The Image Multiplied
2002/3 Nov-Feb, Maastricht, Bonnefantenmuseum, Printmaking in Venice
2003 Mar-May, Bruges, Groeninge Museum, The Century of Titian
2010 Aug-Nov, Coburg, Kunst Sammlungen, Apelles at the Princely Court
2013, Feb-May, Padua, Palazzo del Monte, 'Pietro Bembo & the Arts'
2016 Mar-Jun, London, Royal Academy of Arts, 'In the Age of Giorgione'
2023 23 Jan-4 June, BM, 'Venice 1500: Jacopo de' Barbari and the rise of printmaking'
- Acquisition date
- 1846
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1846,0509.136
