print
- Museum number
- 1866,0714.53
- Description
-
The Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand Christians on Mount Ararat; on the left soldiers, in the centre a clump of trees on which men are being crucified, while on the right others are hurled off a precipice.
Woodcut printed from eight blocks on eight sheets assembled together
- Production date
- 1512-1520 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 1050 millimetres
-
Width: 1540 millimetres (overall)
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- See D.Rosand & M.Muraro, 'Titian and the Venetian Woodcut', Washington 1976, cat.14. They accept that the cutter was Lucantonio, while giving no attribution for the design. This print is only known in four late impressions, three of which have the address of Vieceri (active in the second half of the XVIIc).
The topmost crucified figure in the third tree from the right is after Michelangelo's Haman executed in the left-hand spandrel above the altar of the Sistine chapel by Michelangelo 1511/12. The figure reproduces Michelangelo's motif in reverse, likely deriving from a drawn copy of the frescoed figure (rather than a print in the correct orientation since this woodcut is one of the first responses in print to Michelangelo's Sistine ceiling). The executioner reaching down in the right most tree derives from Michelangelo's Cascina, perhaps known through Marc Antonio's print (see, for example, 1895,0915.135).
For Michelangelo's drawings made in preparation for Haman see 1895,0915.497.
For further information and bibliography see the entry by Laura Aldovini on the online catalogue 'Atlante delle xilografie italiane del Rinascimento', ALU.0201.1.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1983/4 Nov-Mar, London, Royal Academy, 'Genius of Venice'
- Acquisition date
- 1866
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1866,0714.53
