Three Captives
c. 1505
Medium
Engraving on cream laid paper
Dimensions
16 × 10.1 cm (6 5/16 × 4 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
137052
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Jacopo de’ Barbari was an Italian painter and printmaker active in the courts of Saxony, in present-day Germany, during the early 16th century. Albrecht Dürer met Barbari in Venice and was reportedly fascinated by Barbari’s idiosyncratic approach to human proportions, which led to Dürer’s own treatise on the subject (published in 1528). For this engraving Barbari depicted the three bound nude male figures each in a different pose, showing either the front, side, or back. Artists often adopted th...
About the Artist
Jacopo de' Barbari · 1497–1516
Jacopo de' Barbari (c. 1460/70–before 1516) was an Italian painter, printmaker, and miniaturist of Venetian background whose career unfolded across the courts and workshops of northern Europe, making him one of the most important conduits between Italian Renaissance art and the northern artistic tradition in the years around 1500. Little is known of his training or his early decades; Alvise Vivari...