Woman Standing near a Vase (ca. 1514–36, Met-Objekt 5813)
Original title: Woman Standing near a Vase
kurzbeschreibung
A woman stands with her back to us, her right hand resting on a column capital. Agostino Veneziano engraved this print sometime between about 1514 and 1536. She holds herself in a classical pose beside an amphora, set within a landscape backdrop.
Description
The female figure occupies the middle of the plate, seen from behind, her head turned slightly to one side. Her right hand rests on a column capital while the left grips a cloth wound around her hips. A single-handled jug in amphora form stands off to one side. A hilly landscape with trees and buildings fills the distance. The layout is clearly structured, and light and shadow give the body its modelled weight.
Context
Agostino Veneziano, an Italian engraver of the Renaissance, worked in the workshop of Marcantonio Raimondi. The print was made in the first half of the sixteenth century in Rome, where antique sculpture and architectural fragments were studied closely. A woman with an ancient vessel before a landscape echoes Roman wall painting and relief carving. Prints of this kind often served other artists as models or collectors as objects to keep.
Impact
The calm, classical arrangement radiates a timeless harmony and recalls antique reliefs. Because the woman faces away, the mood becomes detached, almost contemplative, drawing the viewer into close looking. Precise linework and a balanced spread of light and shadow lend the sheet a noble, quiet presence.
Technique
Line is cut into a copper plate and then printed: engraving. The method yields fine, exact strokes and graded hatching that builds up plastic form. This monochrome printed image stresses the drawn quality of the work and the contrasts between light and dark.
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Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)