Four Children with a Cat and a Dog, plate nine from Twelve Ornament Panels

Description

This print exemplifies a type of ornamental design that enjoyed wide popularity in the 15th and 16th centuries. Featuring fanciful decorative vases, fragments of armor, symmetrical acanthus scrolls, fantastic creatures, and frolicking putti, it was inspired by painted and carved architectural decorations from Roman antiquity. A significant number of very early engravings depict ornamental designs, suggesting there was considerable demand for them among artists, craftsmen, scholars, and collectors interested in the classical past.

Four Children with a Cat and a Dog, plate nine from Twelve Ornament Panels

Giovan Pietro Birago

c. 1505–15

Accession Number

23429

Medium

Engraving in black on ivory laid paper

Dimensions

53.7 × 8.6 cm (21 3/16 × 3 7/16 in.)

Classification

engraving

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Potter Palmer, Jr.