Ornamental Panel (ca. 1514–36, Met-Objekt 5821)
Original title: Ornamental Panel
kurzbeschreibung
Agostino Veneziano (Agostino dei Musi) produced this ornamental sheet as an engraving, made sometime between about 1514 and 1536. It presents an elaborately structured panel filled with mythological figures and plant motifs. The dimensions are 20.3 x 15.3 cm.
Description
A densely populated ornamental field opens up before the viewer: at its middle sits a figure, likely a deity or the embodiment of an abstract idea. Angels and fabulous creatures spread out around it in varied poses, some holding implements or weapons, others seeming to dance or float. Foliage and scrolling vines frame the figures. Everything stays monochrome in shades of grey, with light falling evenly across the surface.
Context
The Italian Agostino Veneziano worked as an engraver during the Renaissance and belonged to the workshop of Marcantonio Raimondi. He became known above all for reproductive prints after designs by artists such as Raphael. This sheet dates from his Roman years, when he took up both antique and contemporary pictorial motifs. As an ornamental print it belongs to the genre that served craftsmen as a model book.
Impact
What the sheet conveys is the abundance of detail and the many-layered grouping of the figures. Evenly distributed light and cleanly drawn lines lend the whole a certain calm without dispelling its inner movement. Anyone who looks closely can lose themselves for a long time among the many particulars.
Technique
The lines are incised into the copper plate, and only printing with black ink on paper brings out the grey tones. This technique permits the finest internal drawing and a very precise rendering of the figures, which here attests to solid craft experience.
AI-generated description text
Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)