2. Andrea Mantegna
(1431-1506)

Bacchanal with a Wine Vat

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Mantegna, Bacchanal with a Wine Vat

Bacchanal with a Wine Vat

Engraving and drypoint, 1470s, 300 x 450 mm., Bartsch 19, Hind 4, Metropolitan Museum Catalog 74, ex collection R (not in Lugt). Cleanly printed but later, sixteenth-century, impression from the worn plate and lacking the fine lines, on laid paper with a small circle watermark (MMA 13, Nantes 1484-Troyes 1552, see Briquet 2925-27); restorations in the upper corners and lower left corner (all in blank paper) The impression shows almost the entire image, lacking only a bit at the bottom. The dimensions of the actual plate are 335 x 454; the British Museum impression measures 299 x 437. The MMA catalog lists no early impressions (all the later ones were printed in France after the plate was taken there), but there is at least one: formerly Chatsworth collection, sold at Christie’s in 1985 for $413,000. The print is one of the great masterpieces of early Italian printmaking.