Battle of the Sea Gods: Right Half of a Frieze

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.

Battle of the Sea Gods: Right Half of a Frieze

Andrea Mantegna

1470/1500

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

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Bequest of Mrs. Potter Palmer, Jr.