The Pietà
c. 1512
Medium
Engraving in black on paper
Dimensions
30.8 × 21.9 cm (12 3/16 × 8 5/8 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
106559
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Beginning in first two decades of the 16th century, the prints of Marcantonio Raimondi helped popularize compositions by Raphael and his workshop. The sculptural figures and receding landscape in this print are typical of Raphael’s classically inspired work. The Cumean Sibyl, another design after Raphael (1970.597), displays similar landscape elements utilized to depict a pagan subject.
About the Artist
Marcantonio Raimondi · 1475–1534
Marcantonio Raimondi (c. 1480–1534), born near Bologna, Italy, emerged as one of the Renaissance's premier engravers, revolutionizing printmaking through his mastery of reproductive techniques. He trained in the workshop of the goldsmith, painter, and niellist Francesco Francia, whose influence is evident in his early engravings, such as the goldsmith-like shading in *Pyramus and Thisbe* (1505), h...