River Valley with a Traveling Couple
ca. 1560–70
Medium
Etching and engraving
Dimensions
plate: 6 1/8 x 8 1/16 in. (15.6 x 20.5 cm) sheet: 7 5/16 x 10 1/16 in. (18.6 x 25.5 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Howard A. Fox Gift, Chester Dale Bequest, by exchange; A. Hyatt Mayor Purchase Fund, Marjorie Phelps Starr Bequest, 1999
Accession Number
1999.360.7
Tags
Art Historical Context
Lucas Gassel’s *River Valley with a Traveling Couple* captures the quiet beauty of a sixteenth-century landscape through the delicate lines of etching and engraving. Created around 1560–70, the print depicts a couple journeying along a winding river flanked by scattered houses and rolling terrain. The medium, combining the fluid marks of etching with the precise incisions of engraving, allowed artists to render intricate details of foliage, water, and architecture on a modest plate measuring just over six by eight inches. Prints like this one played an important role in the period by making l...