From "Bizzarie di varie Figure"
Medium
etching
Dimensions
plate: 8.5 x 10.9 cm (3 3/8 x 4 5/16 in.) sheet: 11.2 x 15 cm (4 7/16 x 5 7/8 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1961.17.42
Rights
Public Domain
Art Historical Context
Giovanni Battista Bracelli'sFrom "Bizzarie varie Figure"* (162) is a captivating etching from a renowned series of 61 prints, showcasing the artist's inventive imagination during the Italian Baroque era. This diminutive work—measuring just 8.5 x 10.9 cm on the plate—depicts whimsical, humanoid figures ingeniously assembled from polyhedra, cylinders, and other geometric forms. Bracelli, a Florentine engraver, transformed mathematical precision into playful surrealism, creating "bizzarie" (bizarre inventions) that blend human anatomy with impossible architecture. Etching, Bracelli's chosen medi...
About the Artist
Giovanni Battista Bracelli · 1590–1690
Giovanni Battista Bracelli was an Italian engraver and draftsman active in Florence in the early seventeenth century. Membership records of Florence's prestigious Accademia del Disegno place him in the institution between 1619 and 1635, providing the primary documentary evidence for his life and career. He studied under the Florentine painter Jacopo da Empoli (1551–1640), whose workshop produced r...