Woman Riding a Man
c. 1747
Medium
etching, hand-colored with watercolor, on laid paper
Dimensions
plate: 20.5 × 29.5 cm (8 1/16 × 11 5/8 in.) sheet: 23.1 × 32.1 cm (9 1/8 × 12 5/8 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
New Century Fund
Accession Number
2014.176.2
Art Historical Context
**Woman Riding a Man** *Giovanni Francesco Costa, c. 1747* Step into the whimsical world of 18th-century Italian printmaking with Giovanni Francesco Costa's *Woman Riding a Man*, an etching hand-colored with watercolor on laid paper. Created around 1747, this intimate plate measures 20.5 × 29.5 cm, capturing a playful or provocative scene through fine, expressive lines typical of the etching technique. Etching, where acid bites into a metal plate to create intricate details, was a favored method for artists like Costa to produce affordable yet artistic reproductions, bridging elite painti...
About the Artist
Giovanni Francesco Costa · 1711–1773
Italian, Venice, 1711–1772/73