RAIMONDI, Marcantonio

This engraving was made after a Roman copy of a Hellenistic sculpture representing Apollo with his cithara or lyre. During the first half of the sixteenth century, this sculpture was in the collection of Decidio and Fabio Sassi and displayed in the courtyard of the Casa Sassi, as recorded in a drawing by Maerten van Heemskerck.

The sculpture was acquired in 1546 from Fabio Sassi by Odoardo Farnese who had the missing left arm and the lower right arm completed before 1552. Raimondi’s print does not show the sculpture as he must have seen it in Rome as it was recorded by an anonymous Netherlandish artist before any restorations were undertaken: he completed Apollo’s arms. It was not uncommon for artists to complete ancient sculpture when representing it.

Although we do not know exactly when Raphael first started working with Marcantonio Raimondi, it appears to have been around 1510, and by 1511 they were collaborating on a steady basis. Raphael handed over finished drawings in pen and ink or chalk to Marcantonio for use as his compositional sources. The engraving Apollo on the Parnassus was taken from a ‘discarded’ composition for the Parnassus fresco in the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican.

The Crouching Venus, an antique marble, was extremely popular in the Renaissance. Marcantonio Raimondi’s engraving depicts the statue from the traditional side-view.

Marcantonio Raimondi of Bologna was one of the outstanding engravers to reproduce pictures by Raphael, and his prints contributed a good deal to the distribution of Raphael’s ideas, which could now be made available even to artists who never visited Rome. David and Goliath is one of the engravings made after Raphael.

This print was made after one of the scenes by Raphael on the ceiling of Stanza di Eliodoro in the Vatican.

This famous and in the 17th century much sought-after print, made by Raimondi after Raphael, was known also as The Woman on the Steps.

This print was engraved after a drawing by Raphael.

Marcantonio Antonio used the landscape from a print by Lucas van Leyden, and he engraved the figure of Lucretia after a drawing by Raphael.

The source of Marcantonio Raimondi’s Mars is the famous antique Roman Belvedere Torso.

The source of Marcantonio Raimondi’s Mars is the famous antique Roman Belvedere Torso.

This engraving was made after a design by Baccio Bandinelli.

This engraving was made after the design by Raphael. It is the first version, Marcantonio and his workshop later engraved a second version.

Marcantonio Raimondi made six engravings for Raphael. These were the products of an operation for which Raphael provided the designs, Raimodi the engraving skills, and Baviera the organization of the printing and sale.

The Massacre of the Innocents is probably the earliest of the six engravings in which Raphael’s name appears. Two highly accomplished and very similar versions of the engraving have come down to us: one is called “Massacre of the Innocents with fir tree” for a small tree in the upper right corner, and the other is known “Massacre of the Innocents without fir tree.” Both prints were produced by Marcantonio himself, and the version with fir tree was created first.

Marcantonio Raimondi made six engravings for Raphael. These were the products of an operation for which Raphael provided the designs, Raimodi the engraving skills, and Baviera the organization of the printing and sale.

The Massacre of the Innocents is probably the earliest of the six engravings in which Raphael’s name appears. Two highly accomplished and very similar versions of the engraving have come down to us: one is called “Massacre of the Innocents with fir tree” for a small tree in the upper right corner, and the other is known “Massacre of the Innocents without fir tree.” Both prints were produced by Marcantonio himself, and the version with fir tree was created first.

Ambitious in terms of the subject matter and the complex compositional conception in the style of classical relief sculptures, this print is considered among the most important ones of Marcantonio Raimondi’s prolific career and one of his most accomplished examples of “ancient engraving”. In fact, the composition of the scenes is inspired by a relief dating to the first century A.D. known as the “Tabula iliaca”, a tablet illustrating scenes from the Iliad and the Odyssey in a series of small narrative panels arranged around a central scene.

This episode, taken from Virgil’s Aeneid, tells of the exiles fleeing from fallen Troy whose journey is disrupted by Juno. Fortunately for the Greeks, the goddess asks Aeolus, god of winds, to unleash a storm upon the Trojan ships. The animated scene in the centre shows Neptune attempting to calm the winds just as he is about to utter the threatening phrase beginning with the words “Quos Ego”, his efforts visible in his expressive poses evoking the Laoco�n group, a sculpture group which had recently been discovered in Rome.

This outstanding engraving was made after D�rer’s woodcut from the series of Life of the Virgin.

Marcantonio Raimondi, from Bologna, was the best copyist of D�rer’s graphic prints in Italy, and worked faster than any other; he was also the most damaging to D�rer’s own business. In all, his workshop produced copies of eight engravings and over 60 woodcuts by the Nuremberg master, and to D�rer’s great annoyance they came on the art market as genuine. According to Vasari, Raimondi had acquired his models in the Piazza di San Marco in Venice.

It is assumed that the engraving was made after a drawing by Raphael.

This print represents the high point of the collaboration between Marcantonio Raimondi and Raphael, who designed the subject specifically for it to be replicated as an engraving, as well as the starting point of a successful method to spread his works. The immediate success of this graphic masterpiece, which according to Vasari “astonished all of Rome”, led to the production of various copies and derivative works throughout the following centuries, making it one of the most famous prints of the sixteenth century.

The scene relates to the grisaille painting executed for Pope Leo X below the fresco of the Parnassus in the Segnatura Room in the Vatican. In this print, Raimondi succeeds in expressing exquisite pictorial effects with a velvet tonality, achieved through the use of a grained plate which was then polished and sanded in the white areas and thus offering an array of differing shades of grey. However, in terms of its composition, there are many recurring elements from earlier works by Raphael dating back to 1510-15 approximately. The scene shows Raphael’s mastery of exploring subjects through different styles and formal characters, while demonstrating an interpretative freedom and power that was entirely new for that period.

Marcantonio Raimondi contributed greatly to Raphael’s fame by engraving many of his paintings. A drawing mentioned by Vasari, and now lost, was the basis for the engraving. It shows Paris, King Priam’s son, giving the prize of the golden apple to Aphrodite as the most beautiful goddess.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 3 minutes):

Cristoph Willibald Gluck: Paride ed Elena, Paris’ aria

This is one of the last engravings by Marcantonio and Raphael. Its composition was adapted from the reliefs of two ancient sarcophagi.

Marcantonio Raimondi, the real founder and main representative of the Italian High Renaissance graphics industry, copied many drawings by Raphael. This small sheet, a copy of Raphael, which like many works by him is neither signed nor dated, may have been produced around 1511 in Rome, when painter and engraver collaborated very closely.