print;
book of prints
- Museum number
- 1854,1211.430
- Description
-
The incomplete bound series 'Disegni del Mantegna' (Venice 1795), that despite the title includes 24 etchings by Novelli after the artist Marco Zoppo, bound together with a frontispiece showing a bust of Mantegna, a two-folio dedication from the printmaker to the artist Giovanni Battista De Rubeis and the following plates: 1. A group of putti drinking from a wine barrel on a raft with wheels; 2. A warrior in a helmet with a putto seated in a saddle at the top; 3. Madonna and Child in an arched opening; 4. A bearded warrior in a helmet with two gagged male heads; 5. Infants battling with each other, a wall and a fortress behind; 6. A warrior in a helmet with an infant clutching on to a winged dragon; 7. Four men in a rocky landscape; 8. A warrior with a moustache in a helmet with a griffin on the crest; 9. Six putti on a raft with wheels; 10. A warrior in a helmet with a monstrous visor; 11. Two young men speaking to a dwarf; 12. A female warrior in a winged helmet with a dog-like creature; 13. Three young men in conversation; 14. A warrior in a helmet decorated with the head and wings of a dragon; 15. A woman in classical costume defending herself from the attack of three male infants; 16. A bearded man with a turban decorated with wings; 17. two pairs of putti wrestling watched by three men (BM 1920,0214.1.9); 18. A warrior in a winged helmet with an infant holding a snake; 19. Three men in a landscape; 20. A king bust-length; 21. Two pairs of infants wrestling; 22. A warrior in a helmet decorated with lion masks and an eagle; 23. Middle Eastern male figures in a landscape; 24. A warrior in a helmet with a visor (BM 1920,0214.1.1-13; 17-18; 21-22). Bound in British Museum binding.
Etching
- Production date
- 1795
- Dimensions
-
Height: 390 millimetres (approx. sheet size)
-
Height: 232 millimetres
-
Width: 275 millimetres (approx. sheet size)
-
Width: 170 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- The printmaker Novelli states in the introduction that the album of drawings discovered in 1765 was owned by his father, the Venetian painter Pietro Antonio Novelli. It is now at the British Museum (1920,0214.1.1-26).
He wrongly attributed them to Mantegna, and he engraved all the drawings except fols. 22 (1920,0214.1.22) and 25 (1920,0214.1.25).
This series is incomplete, with 4 loose prints extracted from the album and catalogued individually (1854,0628.119-123); while 1854,0628.118; 124 are also catalogued individually but bound together with this run of 24 prints, added at the end.
For the complete bound series of 50 etchings, see 1920.1211.4-56.
Cataloguing supported by the Elizabeth Cayzer Charitable Trust
- Location
- Not on display
- Associated titles
Associated Title: Disegni del Mantegna
- Acquisition date
- 1854
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1854,1211.430