This is the earliest surviving image made from two printing plates and intended for display together, thereby overcoming limitations in the size of printing plates and paper. The left half has a margin and narrow borderline while the right half has no left margin or border, enabling it to be pasted onto the other half to make a complete picture.
The practice of making prints from two plates intended to be joined together became standard from this time, particularly for depicting battles and processions. It suggests that these prints were being made for display on walls and this and the sophisticated subject matter implies a rise in status of prints among collectors.
This belongs to a group of seven prints thought to have been engraved by Andrea Mantegna himself, most dating to between 1460 and 1480. This print shows Mantegna’s use of varied shading lines, with parallel lines and lines have a hooked end creating a zig-zag effect. Mantegna used two sizes of burin to vary line thickness. He also used drypoint, but in this example the lines have worn down and are no longer visible.
The subject of this print is thought to be artistic envy, with the sea-gods being the race of Telchines, who were sculptors and associated with envy in ancient texts. The hag's name is Invidia, (Latin for envy). Mantegna was interested in the antique and visited Roman remains, incorporating the imagery into his work. By 1476 he is known to have owned a sketchbook of 'antique sculpture, of which most are battles of centaurs, fauns, satyrs..'.
Mantegna seems to have taken so few impressions from his prints that even in 1494 Albrecht Dürer could not get one for himself and had to draw a copy. Some elements of Dürer's drawings of this work were used by Hans Sebald Beham for a wallpaper frieze, which in turn acted was source for an ornamental panel by Master C.G. in 1537, an example of the manner in which designs could be transmitted across media.
Physical description
Companion (the right half) to Dyce.994, intended to constitute a long frieze of a single composition; featuring winged and scaly sea creatures and gods and a goddess, holding various weapons or trumpets.
Place of Origin
Mantua, Italy (made)
Date
1475 - 1488 (made)
Artist/maker
Mantegna, Andrea, born 1430 - died 1506 (artist)
Materials and Techniques
engraving print on paper
Marks and inscriptions
INVID [followed by indecipherable lettering]
Dimensions
Height: 28 cm cut to, Width: 82.7 cm cut to, combined with Dyce 994
Descriptive line
Battle of the Sea Gods; Companion to Dyce.994, intended to constitute a single composition; Featuring winged and scaly sea creatures and gods and a goddess, holding various weapons or trumpets; Engraving print on paper; By Andrea Mantegna; Mantua, Italy; ca. 1475-1488.
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Bartsch, Adam von, 1757-1821. The illustrated Bartsch. New York : Abaris Books, 1978-, no. 17 and 18
Essay pp. 73-78
Mantegna, Andrea, 1431-1506. Andrea Mantegna. London : Royal Academy of Arts in association with Electa, Milano ; New York : Metropolitan Museum of Art : Distributed by Abrams, 1992.
Christiansen, Keith. 'The Case for Mantegna as Printmaker', in The Burlington Magazine. Vol. 135, No. 1086 (Sep., 1993), pp. 604-612.
Vickers, Michael. 'The Palazzo Santacroce Sketchbook': A New Source for Andrea Mantegna's "Triumph of Caesar:, "Bacchanals" and "Battle of the Sea Gods", in The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 118, No. 885 (Dec., 1976), pp. 824-835.
Suggests a date closer to 1488 based on Breydenbach's Peregrinationes (published 1486) as a possible source
Jacobsen, Michael A. 'The Meaning of Mantegna's Battle of Sea Monsters', in The Art Bulletin, Vol. 64, No. 4 (Dec., 1982), pp. 623-629.
'The Intended Setting of Mantegna's "Triumph of Caesar", "Battle of the Sea Gods" and "Bacchanals" ', in The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 120, No. 903, Special Issue Devoted to the Italian Quattrocento (Jun., 1978), pp. 365-370.
Bartsch, Adam von. Le Peintre Graveur. Vienna, 1811. Vol XIII.
Hind, A.M. Early Italian Engraving. Washington, 1948. Part 2, Vol. 5,
Hind does not mention the V&A's impressions of the left half.
Landau, David and Peter Parshall. The Renaissance Print: 1470-1550. Yale University Press, 1994.
DYCE COLLECTION. A Catalogue of the Paintings, Miniatures, Drawings, Engravings, Rings and Miscellaneous Objects Bequeathed by The Reverend Alexander Dyce. London : South Kensington Museum : Printed by G.E. Eyre and W. Spottiswoode for H.M.S.O., 1874.
The full text of the entry is as follows:
'ITALIAN SCHOOL.
ANDREA MANTEGNA.
Painter and Engraver.
Born at a village near Padna in 1431, died at Mantua in 1506.
...
COMBAT between two TRITONS. Companion to the next print and intended to constitute a long frieze. B. 17. 993'
[The letter B., and the numbers accompanying it, refer to Bartsch's Peinter-Graveur.]
Lambert, Susan. Drawing: Technique & Purpose. London: Victoria & Albert Museum, 1981. p.26.
The full text of the entry is as follows:
"II. Drawing as a discipline
[…]
DRAWN COPIES FROM THE FLAT
[…]
‘57. After Andrea Mantegna (1431-1506);
Italian
Envy inciting the Marine Gods to fight
Shown with the engraving from which it was
copied
Pen and ink, 28.3 x 42 cm; engraving, cut to
28 x 82.7 cm
VAM CAI.406 (Ionides Bequest); Dyce 993,
994 (Dyce Bequest)
Ward-Jackson commented ‘An unusually
accurate and sensitively drawn copy, of exactly
the same size as the original, probably con-
temporary. The copyist follows the original
line by line, except in the hatching, where his
lines are finer and closer together’. This copy
may have been made to record the original as
much as a drawing exercise.
(PWJ I 13)"
Production Note
In Mantegna exhibition catalogue (1992) these prints are catalogued as being by Andrea Mantegna himself.
Materials
Paper; Printing ink
Techniques
Engraving
Subjects depicted
Weapons; Skull; Trumpets; Sea creatures; Tridents; Sea gods
Categories
Prints
Collection code
PDP
