Woman in Roman Costume Picking Fruit from a Tree
ca. 1560
Medium
Etching and engraving
Dimensions
sheet: 8 7/8 x 5 7/8 in. (22.5 x 15 cm) trimmed to platemark
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1988
Accession Number
1988.1166
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the late Renaissance, Venetian artist Battista Franco (c 1490–1561) created *Woman in Roman Costume Picking from a Tree* around 1560, capturing a graceful figure evoking classical antiquity. Dressed in flowing drapery reminiscent of ancient Roman statues, the woman reaches for ripe fruit amid leafy branches, blending everyday pastoral motifs with idealized antiquity. Franco, influenced by like Michelangelo and Raphael, his Mannerist style with elongated forms and dynamic poses, reflecting the era's fascination with mythological and biblical themes reimagined through Greco-Roman lenses. Thi...
About the Artist
Battista Franco · 1510–1561
Battista Franco, known as il Semolei, was born in Venice around 1510, though his career unfolded largely in Rome and at the courts of central and northern Italy. He came to Rome in his twenties and immediately fell under two powerful spells: the inexhaustible riches of classical antiquity and the overwhelming presence of Michelangelo. Franco spent years making drawings after ancient sculptures and...