Christoforo Roncalli, called Pomerancio, a bust-length portrait in a twelve-sided frame
Medium
Etching and engraving
Dimensions
plate: 5 11/16 x 4 1/2 in. (14.5 x 11.4 cm) sheet: 6 11/16 x 4 15/16 in. (17 x 12.6 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Phyllis Massar, 2011
Accession Number
2012.136.85
Tags
Art Historical Context
This exquisite etching and engraving by Ottavio Leoni known as Il Padov, captures the bust-length portrait of Christof Roncalli, calledancio, framed within an unusual twelve-sided enclosure. Created in 1623, the intimate plate measures just 5 11/16 x 4 1/2 inches, making it a delicate gem suited for collectors' albums or scholarly study. Leoni, a masterful Italian printmaker active in early 17th-century Rome specialized in precise, lifelike portraits of contemporaries, preserving their features for posterity. The technique blends etching's fluid lines with engraving's sharp detail, allowing L...