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Print

ca. 1530s (Engraved)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This engraving is the title page for a set of prints by an anonymous Italian, from about 1530s. The text can be translated as ‘light and (as can be seen) extemporised pictures which are commonly called grotesques … which have been variously selected and faithfully and carefully reduced into one from many vaulted chambers and ancient walls’. This design is close to Roman examples, and this set of prints was republished and copied. Ornament prints like this were copied by artisans in different fields.

The theme of the grotesque was a popular one around this period. Grotesque derives from the Italian word grottesco. The style was inspired by ancient Roman designs discovered at the end of the 15th century in the underground rooms, or grottoes, of the Golden House of Emperor Nero in Rome. Grotesque ornament was used to decorate a wide range of objects, such as ceramics, and the style was much copied by Renaissance artists.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Engraving
Brief description
Anonymous engraver. Leviores et (ut videtur) extemporaneae picturae quas grotteschas vulgo vocant. One from a set of 19 plates of grotesques.
Physical description
Title page. Armoire. A large chest below which is a cartouche.
Dimensions
  • Height: 28.8cm
  • Width: 18.6cm
  • Height: 26.8cm
Style
Marks and inscriptions
Cartouche lettered: LEVIORES. ET. (VT. VIDETVR). EXTEMPORANEAE. PICTVRAE. QVAS. GROTTESCHAS. VVLGO. VOCANT. QVIBVS. ROMANI. ILLI. ANTIQVI. AD. TRICLINIA. ALIAQ. SECRETIORIA. AEDIVM, LOCA. EXORNANDA. VTEBANTVR. EPLVRIB. CONCAMERATIONIB. PARIETIBVSQ. ANTIQVIS. VARIE DESVMPTAE. AC. SVMMA. FIDE. DILIGENTIAQ. IN. VNVM. REDACTAE.
Translation
"light and (as can be seen) extemporised pictures which are commonly called grotesques…, which have been variously selected and faithfully and carefully reduced into one from many vaulted chambers and ancient walls".
Production
Reversed copy plate of Enea Vico grotesque series from before 1541-42.
Subject depicted
Summary
This engraving is the title page for a set of prints by an anonymous Italian, from about 1530s. The text can be translated as ‘light and (as can be seen) extemporised pictures which are commonly called grotesques … which have been variously selected and faithfully and carefully reduced into one from many vaulted chambers and ancient walls’. This design is close to Roman examples, and this set of prints was republished and copied. Ornament prints like this were copied by artisans in different fields.

The theme of the grotesque was a popular one around this period. Grotesque derives from the Italian word grottesco. The style was inspired by ancient Roman designs discovered at the end of the 15th century in the underground rooms, or grottoes, of the Golden House of Emperor Nero in Rome. Grotesque ornament was used to decorate a wide range of objects, such as ceramics, and the style was much copied by Renaissance artists.
Bibliographic references
  • Jessen, P., Meister des Ornamentstiches, eine Auswahl aus vier Jahrhunderten, vol. 1, Gotik und Renaissance, Berlin, 1924.
  • Berlin, Katalog der Ornamentstich-Sammlung der Staatlichen Kunstbibliothek Berlin, Berlin and Leipzig, 1939, 533.
  • Berliner, R. and Egger, G., Ornamentale Vorlageblätter des 15. bis 19. Jahrhunderts, 3 vols, Munich, 1981, 277-9.
  • Ornament and Architecture: Renaissance Drawings, Prints and Books, Exhibition Catalogue, Brown University, Bell Gallery, List Art Center, Providence, Rhode Island, 1980, 84a & b.
  • Byrne, J.S., Renaissance Ornament Prints and Drawings, Metropolitan Museum of art, New York, 1981, 59.
  • Miller, E., 16th-century Italian ornament prints in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1999, p. 98 (cat. 33c).
  • de Jong, M. and de Groot, I., Ornamentprenten in het Rijksprentenkabinet I, 15de & 16de eeuw, 's-Gravenhage, 1988, 655.
  • González de Zárate, J.M., Real Colección de Estampas de San Lorenzo de El Escorial, 10 vols, Vitoria-Gastiez, 1992-5, vol. IX, 38.1-16 (4458-73)
  • Bartsch, A., Le Peintre-Graveur, 21 vols, Vienna, 1803-21, vol. XV, 467.
  • Snodin Michael, Howard Maurice, Ornament. A social History Since 1450, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, in association with the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1996, 39.
  • The Grotesque Factor Malaga: Museo Picasso, 2012. ISBN: 9788494024917.
Collection
Accession number
16770

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Record createdApril 22, 2005
Record URL
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