The Senators, from Triumph of Caesar
c. 1495
Medium
Engraving in black on cream laid paper
Dimensions
Plate/sheet: 28.5 × 26.8 cm (11 1/4 × 10 9/16 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
4302
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Andrea Mantegna made expertly rendered sketches that he intended for reproduction as engravings by his workshop. This engraving of The Senators is in fact derived from a drawing, not the artist’s series of completed canvases of the same theme. Mantegna captured the classical antiquarian essence of ancient Rome through his depiction of architectural practices of the era, such as the aedicula framing the window in the center of this image. Such architectural features provide the backdrop for the v...
About the Artist
Andrea Mantegna · 1431–1506
Andrea Mantegna was born around 1431 near Padua, in the Venetian Republic, the son of a carpenter. At approximately age eleven he was taken into the workshop of the Paduan painter and antiquities collector Francesco Squarcione, who enrolled him as a guild member and immersed him in the study of Roman sculpture and classical Latin. Though Mantegna later claimed that Squarcione had exploited his lab...