The Prison
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
sheet: 10 11/16 x 16 3/8 in. (27.1 x 41.6 cm) borderline
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1917
Accession Number
17.50.16-112
Tags
Art Historical Context
Visitors to the Metropolitan Museum of's Drawings and Prints department will find *The Prison*, a compelling undated engraving attributed to Giorgio Ghisi, Giulio Romano, or an artist. Measuring 10 11/16 x 16 3/8 inches (27.1 x 41.6 cm) on the sheet, this print captures a haunting scene of incarceration, with tags highlighting prisons, prisoners, heads, and men— portraying chained figures in a dimly lit, overcrowded cell that evokes despair and human endurance. Engraving, an intaglio technique popular in the 16th century, allowed artists like Ghisi—a renowned Italian printmaker—to incise intr...
About the Artist
Giorgio Ghisi|Giulio Romano|Anonymous · 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 ...