Sinan Bassa, from Effigie naturali dei maggior prencipi et piu valorosi capitani di questa eta con l'arme loro
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
Sheet: 10 1/16 × 6 7/8 in. (25.5 × 17.5 cm) Plate: 8 1/16 × 5 5/16 in. (20.4 × 13.5 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1957
Accession Number
57.506(35)
Tags
Art Historical Context
This engraving, *Sinan Bassa*, Giacomo Franco's 1596 *Effigie naturali maggior prencipi et valorosi capitani di questa eta con l'arme* (Natural Effigies of the Greatest Princes and Most Valiant Captains of This Age with Their Arms), the stern likeness of Sinan Pasha a formidable Ottoman Grand Vizier and leader. Created in Venice, a hub of printmaking during the late Renaissance, Franco's precise engraving technique—using incised lines on a metal plate inked and pressed onto paper—allowed for detailed portraits that could be widely reproduced and collected. The series celebrated contemporary r...
About the Artist
Giacomo Franco|Giacomo Franco · 1550–1620
**Giacomo Franco (1550–1620)** Giacomo Franco, born around 1550 possibly in Urbino or Venice, emerged as a pivotal figure in Venetian printmaking as the natural son of the painter and engraver Battista Franco Veneziano. He likely received his early training in his father's workshop at Santa Fosca, where Battista had executed notable etchings of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel and Raphael's Vatican ...