Plate 5: figures unloading goods from a boat at the right
Original title: Plate 5: figures unloading goods from a boat at the right
kurzbeschreibung
Made around 1660–90, this etching by Pietro Santi Bartoli belongs to a series. It presents men unloading supplies from a boat along a rocky shore. The layout stretches wide, letting the action unfold in one continuous movement from left to right.
Description
A boat lies at the right, and a crowd of men carries crates and barrels ashore from it. Several haul loads on their heads while others pass the goods along. The workers' clothing recalls ancient or historical times. Rocks and churning water fill the foreground; behind them appear trees and part of a building. The image is drawn out horizontally, and the tasks follow one another like a running narrative.
Context
Pietro Santi Bartoli, an Italian engraver of the Baroque, was known above all for his reproductions of ancient Roman reliefs and paintings. This etching falls in the second half of the seventeenth century, when enthusiasm for antiquity in Rome reached its height. Prints of this kind often served as models for collectors and artists drawn to the classical world.
Impact
Carefully worked figures with visible muscles and faces make the effort and hardness of the labour tangible. Even light without strong shadows gives the scene a calm, matter-of-fact mood. Delicate strokes and graded shading bring out the contours, lending the sheet a precise, almost documentary quality.
Technique
This is an etching: the drawing is incised into a metal plate, which is then bitten with acid. Fine lines and nuanced shading are characteristic of the process. The dimensions are 16.6 × 45.7 cm, a broad, panoramic format for a print.
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Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)