CORT, Cornelis

This engraving was made after the fresco by Federico Zuccaro in the apse calotte of the Jesuit church, formerly Collegio Romano in Rome. The elaborate, multi-figured composition was patterned on Raphael’s Disputa in the Stanza della Segnatura in Vatican.

This engraving was made after Maarten van Heemskerck. It is No. 6 in the series The Story of Daniel, Bel, and the Dragon.

Cort’s prints after Titian were based on a series of very precise drawings provided by the painter. Partly to conform to the difference of medium and function, the painter typically introduced modifications to the original. In the case of the Diana and Callisto, the composition essentially follows (in reverse) that of the Vienna version, which was probably still in Titian’s workshop in 1565-66, rather than that of the original version, sent away in 1559.

The Five Senses was a time-honoured subject in European art. By the late sixteenth century, this subject became popular in graphic art, especially among artists in the Southern Netherlands. Cort’s engraving after a design of Frans Floris typify the earlier approach to this subject matter as each sense is personified by a female allegorical figure of dignified, classical beauty, accompanied by attributes.

This engraving was made after a painting by Federico Barocci.

Titian used his assistants not just to help him meet his burdensome official obligations, but even more importantly to produce replicas and variants of his most popular compositions. Titian in his later career regularly made - or had made by his shop - replicas or variants of his works as a matter of course, and only later sought to identify a suitable buyer for them. In the same entrepreneurial spirit he also arranged for a selection of his paintings to be even more widely reproduced in the form of engravings in his final years. In 1567, and again in 1571, he went into temporary partnership with the highly skilled Netherlandish engraver Cornelis Cort, with the purpose of producing a set of prints of eight of his compositions, carefully chosen for their variety of subject matter.

Cort’s prints were based on a series of very precise drawings provided by the painter. Partly to conform to the difference of medium and function, the painter typically introduced modifications to the original. In the case of the Trinity in Glory, he introduced his own self-portrait at the far right, just below the portraits of King Philip and the other members of the Habsburg royal family.