Description
Andrea Mantegna’s Battle of the Sea Gods may be the first print with a unified composition occupying more than one sheet. Unlike the Andrea Andreani Triumph of Caesar (1926.452.2–9) and the engravings after the same Mantegna paintings by his own workshop, this mythological frieze has only one seam and no disguising columns. Albrecht Dürer drew a copy of the right half of the frieze in 1494, already establishing the seminal importance of the work in the Renaissance.
Accession Number
4288
Medium
Engraving in black on ivory laid paper, discolored to grayish brown
Dimensions
Image/sheet: 28.1 × 39.4 cm (11 1/8 × 15 9/16 in.); Composite approx: 28.3 × 80.9 cm (11 3/16 × 31 7/8 in.)
Classification
engraving
Credit Line
Bequest of Mrs. Potter Palmer, Jr.