Roman General (?) Seated before Ruins
1525–76
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
sheet: 6 7/8 x 4 5/8 in. (17.5 x 11.7 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1956
Accession Number
56.644.17
Rights
Public Domain
Art Historical Context
Lambert Suavius’s engraving *Roman General (?) Seated before Ruins* captures the Renaissance fascination with classical antiquity. Created between 1525 and 1576, the print depicts a seated figure in Roman armor contemplating weathered architectural fragments, evoking both martial glory and the passage of time. Suavius, a Flemish printmaker active in Liège and influenced by Italian models, used the medium’s crisp lines to translate sculptural forms and crumbling stone into a portable image that could circulate widely among collectors and scholars. Engraving was prized in the sixteenth century ...
About the Artist
Lambert Suavius · 1510–1576
Lambert Suavius (c.1510–c.1574/76), whose Flemish family name was Zutman, was born in Liège, in the southern Netherlands. He was the son of an episcopal goldsmith, Henri Zutman, and from his father's craft environment he inherited a training in the precise handling of metal and an appreciation for fine detail work. He became closely associated with his brother-in-law Lambert Lombard, the leading a...