print
- Museum number
- 1860,0414.102
- Description
-
The young St John the Baptist seated in the desert, holding a staff in his left hand, right raised, after Raphael
Chiaroscuro woodcut in two blocks in green
- Production date
- 1560-1570 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 343 millimetres
-
Width: 251 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- This print was attributed by Bartsch to Ugo da Carpi, and this has remained current until recently when a new and more convincing attribution was proposed to Boldrini: see Naoko Takahatake, 'The chiaroscuro woodcut in Renaissance Italy', Los Angeles 2018, p.209. The composition uses a Raphael composition set into a new landscape created by Boldrini himself.
For two other chiaroscuro impressions, see 1868,0612.13 and 1874,0808.187.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1860
- Acquisition notes
- The 255 woodcuts came from a group of 500 that was offered by Colnaghi for £500 (see Carpenter's report dated 21 March 1860). According to the register these came from the collection of William Russell. Carpenter proposed making a selection of those that the BM lacked; this was first declined by Colnaghi's, but was later accepted (see his later report dated 11 April). The final selection of 255 prints cost 300 guineas. Nos.312 to 327 were Japanese colour prints - almost the earliest to enter the BM collection.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1860,0414.102
