The Martrydom of St. Barbara
late 1570s
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
sheet: 10 1/2 x 7 1/16 in. (26.7 x 18 cm) borderline
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1953
Accession Number
53.600.993
Tags
Art Historical Context
Welcome to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department, where Giorgio Ghisi's *The Martyrdom of. Barbara* (late 1570s) captivates with its dramatic intensity. This engraving depicts the legendary 4th-century saint, a Christian martyr often shown enduring torture by her pagan father, surrounded by executioners, angels, and divine figures. Ghisi, a masterful Italian engraver active in the Mannerist era drew from religious iconography popular in Counter-Reformation Europe, emphasizing faith's triumph over persecution. Crafted as a precise intaglio print on a modest sheet (10 ...
About the Artist
Giorgio Ghisi · 1520–1582
Giorgio Ghisi (c. 1520–1582) was one of the most accomplished engravers of the Italian Renaissance, renowned for translating the monumental compositions of Raphael, Giulio Romano, and Michelangelo into the exacting medium of the burin. Born in Mantua, he trained in an environment shaped by the legacy of Giulio Romano's decoration of the Palazzo del Te, and the grandeur of that Mannerist tradition ...