Plate 7: Vase or Ewer Decorated With a Vase Flanked by Putti and Two Large Female figures whose legs morph into griffin claws, from Antique Vases (Vasa a Polydoro Caravagino)
Medium
Etching and engraving; second state of three (Bartsch)
Dimensions
Sheet: 9 1/16 × 6 1/4 in. (23 × 15.8 cm)
Classification
Prints|Ornament & Architecture
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1951
Accession Number
51.501.606
Tags
Art Historical Context
Welcome to Plate 7 from *Antique Vases (Vasa a Polydoro Caravagino)*, a captivating 1605 etching and engraving by a stellar collaboration: designs attributed to Mannerist masters Cherubino Alberti (after Zaccaria Mattia) and Polidoro da Caravaggio, with exquisite execution by engravers Aegidius Sadeler II and Marcus Sadeler. This second-state impression (per Bartsch) measures a intimate 9 1/16 × 6 1/4 inches and depicts an ornate vase or ewer adorned with a central vase flanked by playful putti (cherubic figures) and two towering female nudes whose legs dramatically morph into griffin claws—a ...
About the Artist
Cherubino Alberti (Zaccaria Mattia)|Polidoro da Caravaggio|Aegidius Sadeler II|Marcus Sadeler · 1553–1615
Cherubino Alberti (1553–1615), also known by his birth name Zaccaria Mattia, was an Italian engraver and painter active in Rome during the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods. Born in Borgo San Sepolcro in Tuscany, he came from an artistically inclined family and received training that equipped him for work in both painting and the reproductive graphic arts. It was as a printmaker, however,...