The Virgin of Sorrows: Angel; one of nine surrounding compartments from the Virgin of Sorrows, now separated
by 1575
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 13/16 × 2 3/16 in. (7.1 × 5.6 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1953
Accession Number
53.600.3495
Tags
Art Historical Context
Behold this delicate engraving, *The Virgin of Sorrows Angel*, created by the masterful Italian printmaker Giorgio Ghisi by1575. One of nine surrounding compartments from the now-separated *Virgin of Sorrows* series, it captures a single angel in intimate detail on a tiny sheet measuring just 2 13/16 × 2 3/16 inches. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of's Drawings and Prints department this work exemplifies the Renaissance-era devotion to the Mater Dolorosa, the sorrowful Virgin Mary, flanked by celestial guardians. Ghisi, a leading engraver of the Mannerist period active in Italy and Antwerp...
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 ...