Hercules and Antaeus

Ugo da Carpi

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Ugo da Carpi was one of the most accomplished makers of woodcuts working in Italy in the first half of the sixteenth century. He translated into chiaroscuro prints designs of Raphael, Parmigianino, and others. The present composition had been engraved by Marcantonio Raimondi, the celebrated printmaker active in Rome in the first quarter of the sixteenth century. Carpi used Marcantonio's engraving as his model, faithfully capturing not only the compositional details but also the full range of the print's tonal values. He produced this effect with a sophisticated use of two woodblocks. A key block, inked in black, delineated the composition, then a tone block, inked in greenish blue, provided the middle tone. Areas in the tone block were crisply cut out, allowing the white of the paper to act as highlights.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art