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Prints, Drawings, and Photographs Procession of Captives Made in Mantua, Italy, Europe1599 Andrea Andreani, Italian, 1540/46 - 1623. After Andrea Mantegna, Italian (active Padua, Mantua, and Verona), 1431 - 1506. Woodcut (chiaroscuro), printed in gray, black, and brown ink from four blocks Currently not on view 1985-52-546 |
The Muriel and Philip Berman Gift, acquired from the John S. Phillips bequest of 1876 to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, with funds contributed by Muriel and Philip Berman, gifts (by exchange) of Lisa Norris Elkins, Bryant W. Langston, Samuel S. White 3rd and Vera White, with additional funds contributed by John Howard McFadden, Jr., Thomas Skelton Harrison, and the Philip H. and A.S.W. Rosenbach Foundation, 1985LabelIn the late fifteenth century, Andrea Mantegna painted a monumental frieze (nine canvases, each measuring nine by nine feet) for the noble Gonzaga family of Mantua, Italy. Mantegna's work represented one of the most ambitious attempts ever to reconstruct the appearance of the ancient Roman processions, known as triumphs, that celebrated the victory of a general. To recreate the pomp and splendor of a triumph-with its musicians, standard-bearers, animals, prisoners of war, and trophies (precious booty and captured arms)-Mantegna drew on both ancient literary descriptions and ancient visual sources, such as coins, medals, and the relief sculpture on Roman triumphal arches. Not everyone could travel to Mantua to see Mantegna's vast frieze, but the fame of the work was spread through the engravings produced by artists in Mantegna's circle. This splendid woodcut, which were created much later, reflects a revival of interest in the work a century after it was painted. |
