Apollo, plate 20 from Apollo and the Muses
Medium
Engraving on paper
Dimensions
Plate: 17.7 × 10 cm (7 × 3 15/16 in.); Sheet: 18.4 × 10.6 cm (7 1/4 × 4 3/16 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
11482
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
These engravings, part of a “deck” of 50 images that resemble playing cards, were probably created in Ferrara. The enigmatic series is organized into five thematic groups: Conditions of Man, Apollo and the Muses, Arts and Sciences, Geniuses and Virtues, and Firmaments of the Universe. Not intended as tarot or playing cards, these tarocchi were most likely used as a didactic iconographical source or model book. Apollo, though crowned and seated on a celestial sphere, is shown in an unusual manner...
About the Artist
Master of the E-Series Tarocchi · 1460–1475
The Master of the E-Series Tarocchi was an anonymous Italian engraver active in Ferrara around 1465, during the vibrant era of the Este court. His early life and training remain undocumented, but stylistic affinities link him to artists collaborating with Francesco del Cossa on the frescoes of Palazzo Schifanoia's Salone dei Mesi. Working in the Ferrarese tradition, he produced the pioneering E-se...