Italian Renaissance Engravings, c. 1470-1510

January 17 - March 2, 2003

This exhibition of early Italian Renaissance prints brings together over thirty works of art that follow the development of Italian engraving from its beginnings in the 1460s until c. 1510. The exhibition includes a number of Florentine and Northern Italian compositions of a type not often seen in St. Louis. Examples include the famous engraving of the Battle of the Naked Men by the celebrated Florentine Antonio Pollaiuolo (1431-1498) as well as several works or designs by the Northern Italian artist Andrea Mantegna (c. 1431-1506). These prints, together with others, illuminate the development of Italian composition from illustration to complex images and reflect the tonal quality and allegorical subject matter of the early sixteenth century. The works in this exhibition are drawn from a private collection and from the collection of The Saint Louis Art Museum.