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.
Triton and Two Infant Satyrs, plate four from Twelve Ornament Panels
c. 1505–15
Accession Number
23434
Medium
Engraving in black on grayish cream laid paper
Dimensions
Plate: 53.1 × 8.5 cm (20 15/16 × 3 3/8 in.); Sheet: 55.2 × 11.5 cm (21 3/4 × 4 9/16 in.)
Classification
engraving
Credit Line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Potter Palmer, Jr.