The Adoration of the Magi (Virgin of the Grotto)
c. 1500
Medium
Engraving on paper
Dimensions
37.8 × 28 cm (14 15/16 × 11 1/16 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
43247
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This unfinished engraving presents the Adoration of the Magi in a cave instead of its typical stable setting. The unusual cropping to a detail of Mantegna’s original painting alludes to the grotesque style of art that was popular at the time the print was made. The word “grotto” (or grotta in Italian) literally translates into “cave,” while the grotesque style was patterned on antique paintings found underground that featured images of bizarre creatures or people, intermingled with foliage, colu...
About the Artist
Andrea Mantegna · 1431–1506
Andrea Mantegna was born around 1431 near Padua, in the Venetian Republic, the son of a carpenter. At approximately age eleven he was taken into the workshop of the Paduan painter and antiquities collector Francesco Squarcione, who enrolled him as a guild member and immersed him in the study of Roman sculpture and classical Latin. Though Mantegna later claimed that Squarcione had exploited his lab...