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Print

ca. 1573 (published), 1543 (engraved)
Artist/Maker
Lafrery, Antonio (publisher)
Vico, Enea (Engraver)
Anonymous (Engraver)
Place of origin
Rome (published)

Enea Vico (1523-1567), an engraver, coin collector, author and artist interested in ancient Rome, originally engraved 12 plates of vases and ewers in 1543. Although the lettering on the plates says that they are copied from ancient Roman examples, it may be that Vico also used his imagination in rendering the vessels. After Vico's death in 1567 the copper printing plates for these prints were acquired by Antonio Lafrery (about 1512-1577), a very successful print publisher and dealer in Rome. Lafrery reissued the plates around 1573 adding an extra plate at the beginning and at the end of the set to further its appeal.

These prints claiming to depict Roman antiquities would have appealed to learned local residents and the many visitors who passed through Rome.


Object details

Categories
Ornament Prints
SCRAN
Object type
Print
Materials and techniques
Engraving on paper
Brief description
One of fourteen plates of vases engraved by Enea Vico, reissued by Antonio Lafrery in c. 1573; Italian.
Physical description
Vase with the head of a bull and two handles
Dimensions
  • Plate height: 28.4cm
  • Plate width: 20.7cm
Style
Renaissance
Production
Reissue of earlier plates by Vico from 1543 and reversed copy of Agostino Veneziano, B XIV, 547 and 546.
Subject depicted
Vase
Summary
Enea Vico (1523-1567), an engraver, coin collector, author and artist interested in ancient Rome, originally engraved 12 plates of vases and ewers in 1543. Although the lettering on the plates says that they are copied from ancient Roman examples, it may be that Vico also used his imagination in rendering the vessels. After Vico's death in 1567 the copper printing plates for these prints were acquired by Antonio Lafrery (about 1512-1577), a very successful print publisher and dealer in Rome. Lafrery reissued the plates around 1573 adding an extra plate at the beginning and at the end of the set to further its appeal.

These prints claiming to depict Roman antiquities would have appealed to learned local residents and the many visitors who passed through Rome.
Bibliographic references
  • Miller, E., 16th-century Italian ornament prints in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1999, p. 236 (cat. 68b).
  • Miller, E., 16th-century Italian ornament prints in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1999, pp. 126-31 (cat. 39).
  • Elizabeth Miller, 'Antonio Lafreri's architecture and ornament volumes: Crossing the boundary between books and volumes of prints in late sixteenth-century Rome', Renaissance Studies, 33 (2019), 761- 788
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
E.2019-1899

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Record createdJanuary 9, 2004
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O89018/print-lafrery-antonio/
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