The Ill-Assorted Couple (The Offer of Love)
c. 1506
Medium
Engraving on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
15.5 × 14.1 cm (6 1/8 × 5 9/16 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
61369
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Albrecht Dürer resorted to legal action to protect his artworks from copyists, based in part on Marcantonio Raimondi’s practice of reissuing woodcuts from Dürer’s Life of the Virgin book as engravings. This secular engraving (representing two lovers acting out of ulterior, financial motives) is one case in which the print media matches the original. Stylistically, there is no comparison between the intricacy of Dürer’s lines and Marcantonio’s dryer flecks and outlines. But contemporary buyers di...
About the Artist
Marcantonio Raimondi · 1475–1534
Marcantonio Raimondi (c. 1480–1534), born near Bologna, Italy, emerged as one of the Renaissance's premier engravers, revolutionizing printmaking through his mastery of reproductive techniques. He trained in the workshop of the goldsmith, painter, and niellist Francesco Francia, whose influence is evident in his early engravings, such as the goldsmith-like shading in *Pyramus and Thisbe* (1505), h...