The Morbetto, or The Plague of Phrygia
1515/16
Medium
Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image: 19.8 × 25.2 cm (7 13/16 × 9 15/16 in.); Sheet: 19.9 × 25.3 cm (7 7/8 × 10 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
61969
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
The subject of this print, as identified by the text on the central pedestal, is based on an excerpt from Virgil’s epic poem Aeneid, which follows the hero Aeneas on his flight from Troy to Italy after the Trojan War. In book three of the poem, Aeneas’s father interprets a message from the oracle of the god Apollo to mean that the Trojans should colonize the island of Crete. They build a city, which Aeneas names Pergamum, but are struck by a wretched plague, which brings a year of death to human...
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...