Madonna and child

Marcantonio Raimondi, often called simply Marcantonio (c. 1470/1482–c. 1534),was an Italian engraver, known for being the first important printmaker, whose body of work consists largely of prints copying paintings. He is therefore a key figure in the rise of the reproductive print. He also systematised a technique of engraving that became dominant in Italy and elsewhere. His collaboration with Raphael greatly helped his career, and he continued to exploit Raphael's works after the painter's death in 1520, playing a large part in spreading High Renaissance styles across Europe. Much of the biographical information we have comes from his life, the only one of a printmaker, in Giorgio Vasari's <em>Lives of the Artists. </em>Around 300 engravings are attributed to him. After years of great success, his career ran in to trouble in the mid-1520s; he was imprisoned for a time in Rome over his role in the series of erotic prints I Modi and then, according to Vasari, lost all his money in the Sack of Rome in 1527, after which none of his work can be securely dated.

This engraving, in the so-called King George IV album of Old Master prints, is related to drawings for one of Raphael's most famous paintings, the <em>Madonna di Foligno </em>(151l–12), in the Pinacoteca Vaticana, Rome. It probably dates to within five years of the painting. The Virgin is seated on clouds, holding the Christ Child on her right knee; her right hand rests on his right thigh; he grasps her mantle with both hands. They are set within a penumbra of divine light.

See: Wikipedia, 'Marcantonion Raimondi', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcantonio_Raimondi 

Dr Mark Stocker    Curator, Historical International Art       March 2017