Original engraving by Marcantonio Raimondi after Albrecht Dürer, c. 1510

The Circumcision

Engraver:
Marcantonio Raimondi, also simply Marcantonio, (c. 1480 – c. 1534) was an Italian engraver, known for being the first important printmaker whose body of work consists mainly of prints copying paintings and prints by other artists.

Details:
For sale is an original engraving by Marcantonio (Bartsch XIV.406.632), printed on laid paper with watermark. Verso stamp of the collection 'Graphische Sammlung München' (Lugt 1614).

It is a very close repetition in the same direction of the respective woodcut from Dürer's Life of the Virgin (Meder 198). The print shows the circumcision of Christ. Below in the plate with the monogram of Dürer.

About 1505 Marcantonio started to make copies of Dürer's woodcut series, the Life of the Virgin. This was extremely common practice, although normally engravers copied other expensive engravings rather than the cheaper woodcuts. However Dürer's woodcuts had raised the standard of the medium considerably, and since Marcantonio continued to copy a large number of both Dürer's engravings and woodcuts, he must have found it profitable.

His early copies included Dürer's famous AD monogram, hence Dürer made a complaint to the Venetian Government, which won him some legal protection for his monogram, but not his compositions, in Venetian territory - an important case in the slowly evolving history of intellectual property law.

Leaf size: c. 29 x 21.5 cm

Condition: 
- trimmed at the platemark, below partly up to the surrounding line, mounted on paperboard at the left margin 
- very well-preserved


This is an original, no reproduction!

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