The Angel of the Ninth Sphere, or Primum Mobile, plate 49 from Planets and Spheres
Medium
Engraving in black on tan laid paper
Dimensions
Image: 16.6 × 9.6 cm (6 9/16 × 3 13/16 in.); Plate: 17.7 × 10 cm (7 × 3 15/16 in.); Sheet: 18.2 × 10.4 cm (7 3/16 × 4 1/8 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
11466
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
The Ferrara nobility used these enigmatic flash cards, whose engraver’s identity is now unknown, to tutor their children in the structure of the world and the greater cosmos. With images ranging from a human beggar to God himself, the fifty cards in each set were divided into five groups: Ranks and Conditions of Men, Apollo and the Muses, Arts and Sciences, Genii and Virtues, and Planets and Spheres. The stationary angel with the starry disc in plate 48 represents the firmament as a fixed patter...
About the Artist
Master of the E-Series Tarocchi · 1460–1475
The Master of the E-Series Tarocchi was an anonymous Italian engraver active in Ferrara around 1465, during the vibrant era of the Este court. His early life and training remain undocumented, but stylistic affinities link him to artists collaborating with Francesco del Cossa on the frescoes of Palazzo Schifanoia's Salone dei Mesi. Working in the Ferrarese tradition, he produced the pioneering E-se...