Following on from a series on the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael, it seemed fitting to to feature a series on Marcantonio Raimondi (c1480, near Bologna, Italy - c1534, Bologna), Italian Renaissance master of engraving whose production of more than 300 prints did much to disseminate the style of the High Renaissance throughout Europe, especially the work of Raphael.
Raimondi received his training in the workshop of the famous goldsmith and painter Francesco Raibolini, called Francia. The stiff, irregular hatching, as well as the figures, draperies, and composition of such early engravings as Serpent Speaking to a Young Man (c1500) and Pyramus and Thisbe (1505) reveal the influence of Francia, but the landscape backgrounds and his use of light and shade indicate that he was familiar with the engravings of Lucas van Leyden.
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| Serpent Speaking to a Young Man engraving National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
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| Pyramus and Thisbe engraving 23.4 x 20.5 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
During his stay in Venice (c. 1506–08), Raimondi also profited from studies of Albrecht Dürer’s energetic line and his use of crosshatching in modelling. He copied more than 70 of Dürer’s woodcuts and engravings, causing Dürer to bring suit against him in 1506.
In about 1510 Raimondi went to Rome. There his activity was almost entirely limited to reproducing works of Raphael, Michelangelo, and their followers. By 1513 he had met Raphael, who included a depiction of Raimondi in the Vatican fresco Expulsion of Heliodorus (1513). He was very successful financially and attracted a large number of pupils, of whom the two most distinguished were Marco Dente, known as Marco da Ravenna, and Agostino de Musi, known as Agostino Veneziano.
Raimondi’s best engravings, such as Massacre of the Innocents, were done during the first years after he had attached himself to Raphael. In these he retains Raphael’s idealised figures, but, in the parts where he was left to himself (the rounding and shading, the background and landscape), he managed his burin with all the skill and freedom he had gained by the imitation of northern models, while dispensing with the northern emphasis on detail. Raimondi’s engravings after the works of Raphael’s later years were characterised by a colder, harsher use of light and shade and by less-disciplined design.
Raimondi was disgraced when he was arrested for engraving a series of pornographic designs after Giulio Romano. He was finally ruined by having to pay a heavy ransom to the Spaniards, who had taken Rome, after which he retired to obscurity in Bologna. Because of this, none of his prints made after 1527 can be dated with any certainty.
This is part 1 of 5 parts on the works of Marcantonio Raimondi:
This print from a bas-relief on the Arch of Constantine celebrating the Roman Emperor Trajan’s 105/06 A.D. victory over the Dacians (from an area now encompassing Romania). The frieze-like shape of the composition and the depth of the visual field mimic that shallow type of sculpture, while celebrating Rome’s historical past at a moment just before the 1527 sack by the troops of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.
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| c1480-1534 Trajan Crowned by Victory engraving 29.3 x 44.1 cm Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
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| c1500-1506 Orpheus and Eurydice engraving 12.9 x 9.8 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1500-1510 St Margaret, after Francesco Francia engraving 10.8 x 11.8 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1500-1527 Venus and Cupid standing in a niche, after Raphael engraving 20,3 x 8.3 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| 1500-1527 Saint John, after Raphael engraving 8.4 x 5.1 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| 1500-1527 Saint Lawrence engraving 8.2 x 4.9 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| 1500-1527 Saint Simon, after Raphael engraving 8.2 x 5 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| 1500-1527 The Angel Gabriel engraving 7.4 x 4.3 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1500-1527 Christ, after Raphael engraving 8.3 x 5.2 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1500-1527 Christ on the Cross engraving 5 x 8.3 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1500-1527 Saint Anthony engraving 8 x 4.8 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1500-1527 Saint Anthony engraving 8.3 x 4.8 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1500-1527 Saint Anthony of Padua engraving 7.8 x 4.9 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1500-1527 Saint Bernard engraving 8.2 x 4.9 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1500-1527 Saint James Major, after Raphael engraving 8 x 4.8 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1500-1527 Saint Jude, after Raphael engraving 8.2 x 4.9 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1500-1527 Saint Matthew, after Raphael engraving 8 x 4.8 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1500-1527 Saint Michael engraving 8.2 x 4.8 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1500-1527 Saint Paul, after Raphael engraving 8 x 4.7 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1500-1527 Saint Peter, after Raphael engraving 8.2 x 4.9 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1500-1527 Saint Philip, after Raphael engraving 8.2 x 4.8 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1500-1527 Saint Roch engraving 8.3 x 4.9 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1500-1527 Saint Anne and the Virgin with the Infant Christ engraving 8.3 x 5 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1500-1527 Saint Barbara, Saint Catherine, Saint Lucy engraving 7.7 x 11.8 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1500-1527 Saint Catherine, after Francesco Francia engraving 10.5 x 7.8 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1500-1527 The Holy Trinity engraving 8.4 x 5.1 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1500-1527 The Virgin holding the Christ Child engraving 8.4 x 5.2 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1500-1527 Venus and Cupid engraving 20.4 x 10.5 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1500-1534 A Roman Emperor sitting in a niche, after Raphael etching and engraving 11 x 8 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1500-1534 A Roman emperor sitting in a niche holding a globe and sceptre, after Raphael engraving 11 x 8.2 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1500-1534 Adam and Eve, after Albrecht Dürer engraving 13.2 x 10.1 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1500-1534 Alexander the Great commanding that the work of Homer be placed in the tomb of Achilles engraving 25.1 x 39.8 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1500-1534 Christ at Emmaus, after Albrecht Dürer engraving 13 x 9.9 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1500-1534 Christ captured and being dragged by hair up steps before the throne of the high priest Annas, after Albrecht Dürer engraving 12.9 x 9.8 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1500-1534 Christ in Limbo with Adam and Eve engraving 21.5 x 17.1 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1500-1534 Christ presented to Pilate by henchmen, after Albrecht Dürer engraving 13.1 x 9.9 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1500-1534 Christ Taking Leave of His Mother, after Albrecht Dürer engraving 12.9 x 10 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1500-1534 Ecce Homo, after Albrecht Dürer engraving 13.2 x 10 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1500-1534 Lord and Lady walking with figure of Death hiding behind a tree, holding an hourglass, after Albrecht Dürer engraving 19.5 x 12.2 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1500-1534 Man kneeling at the edge of a wood engraving 9.5 x 7.8 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1500-1534 Man sleeping at the edge of a wood etching and engraving 9.5 x 8 cm |
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| c1500-1534 Medor and Angelica, from Lodovico Ariosto's 'Orlando Furioso' or Venus and Adonis embracing engraving 26 x 18 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1500-1534 Naked Man, after Michelangelo Buonarroti engraving 20.2 x 13.5 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1500-1534 Naked man wearing an elaborate helmet engraving 24.6 x 27.7 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1500-1534 Saint Christopher crossing the river with Christ in the form of a putto on his shoulders and a hermit in the foreground, after Albrecht Dürer engraving 21.3 x 14.5 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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