Putti Leading a Goat
c. 1747
Medium
etching, hand-colored with watercolor, on laid paper
Dimensions
plate: 20.4 × 29.2 cm (8 1/16 × 11 1/2 in.) sheet: 23 × 39.5 cm (9 1/16 × 15 9/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
New Century Fund
Accession Number
2014.176.5
Art Historical Context
In the whimsical etching *Putti Leading a Goat created around 1747 by Italian artist Giovanni Francesco Costa, playful cherubic figures—known as putti—merrily guide a goat through a pastoral scene. These joyful motifs, evoking the lighthearted spirit of 18th-century Rococo, capture a sense of innocence and frolic, common in Roman printmaking circles where Costa worked. The composition, with its plate size of 20.4 × 29.2 cm, invites viewers into a fantastical world blending human whimsy with nature. Costa's mastery shines in the etching technique, where acid bites into a metal plate to create ...
About the Artist
Giovanni Francesco Costa · 1711–1773
Italian, Venice, 1711–1772/73