![Benedetto Montagna Orpheus](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Benedetto_Montagna_Orpheus.jpg)
Benedetto Montagna (c. 1480–1555/58) was an Italian engraver and painter. Montagna was born in
Vicenza
Vicenza ( , ; ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region at the northern base of the ''Monte Berico'', where it straddles the Bacchiglione River. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and east of Milan.
Vicenza is a th ...
, the son of the leading painter of the city,
Bartolomeo Montagna
Bartolomeo (or Bartolommeo) Montagna (, , ; 1450?– 11 October 1523) was an Italian Renaissance painter who mainly worked in Vicenza. He also produced works in Venice, Verona, and Padua. He is most famous for his many Madonnas and his works are ...
, with whom he trained and perhaps continued to work. His approximately 53
engraving
Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a Burin (engraving), burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or Glass engraving, glass ...
s seem to have been produced in the period from about 1500 until his father died in 1523 and he inherited the workshop; in these years he was "the most prolific engraver of his generation in northern Italy". He ran the workshop into at least the 1540s, but his paintings fell behind the development of Italian styles as they largely follow his father's style, less successfully. Many do not survive. His prints are generally found more significant by art historians.
He engraved primarily subjects from
classical mythology
Classical mythology, Greco-Roman mythology, or Greek and Roman mythology is both the body of and the study of myths from the ancient Greeks and ancient Romans as they are used or transformed by cultural reception. Along with philosophy and polit ...
, with a middle period with many religious subjects in about 1506–12.
Life
![Benedetto Montagna - São Paulo, o eremita, contemplando a morte de Santo Antão](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Benedetto_Montagna_-_S%C3%A3o_Paulo%2C_o_eremita%2C_contemplando_a_morte_de_Santo_Ant%C3%A3o.jpg)
He was given a
power of attorney
A power of attorney (POA) or letter of attorney is a written authorization to represent or act on another's behalf in private affairs (which may be financial or regarding health and welfare), business, or some other legal matter. The person auth ...
for his father in 1504, suggesting a birth date around 1480. His father was paid in 1517 for some painting Benedetto did in the
Palazzo del Podestà, Vicenza, seat of the chief magistrate; Vicenza had long been a territory of the
Venetian Republic
The Republic of Venice ( vec, Repùblega de Venèsia) or Venetian Republic ( vec, Repùblega Vèneta, links=no), traditionally known as La Serenissima ( en, Most Serene Republic of Venice, italics=yes; vec, Serenìsima Repùblega de Venèsia, ...
. Otherwise, his earliest documented works are
fresco
Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...
s, which have not survived, for a chapel in
Padua
Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...
, painted in 1522. His father's wills of 1521 and 1523 reveal that he was not then married but had an illegitimate son. When his father died in 1523, Benedetto took over the workshop. He may already have ceased to make engravings by this point. His last documented painting is from 1541, and he had certainly died by 4 April 1558.
A statue of the Madonna and Child in the
Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
has been attributed to him. The painter
Giovanni Speranza, briefly mentioned by
Vasari
Giorgio Vasari (, also , ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance Master, who worked as a painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, who is best known for his work ''The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculpt ...
, was a collaborator, who was perhaps some years older.
In 2004 there was an exhibition on the work of the two Montagnas, father and son, held in
Palladio
Andrea Palladio ( ; ; 30 November 1508 – 19 August 1580) was an Italian Renaissance architect active in the Venetian Republic. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily Vitruvius, is widely considered to be one of th ...
's
Villa Caldogno near Vicenza.
Prints
His prints are mostly relatively small, with the longest side rarely more than about 200 mm or 8 inches. The figures are often smaller relative to the overall size than in other contemporary Italian prints. Most of his prints are prominently signed with his full name, unlike the initials or
monogram
A monogram is a motif made by overlapping or combining two or more letters or other graphemes to form one symbol. Monograms are often made by combining the initials of an individual or a company, used as recognizable symbols or logos. A series o ...
s used by many printmakers of this period. Like
Giulio Campagnola
Giulio Campagnola (; c. 1482 – c. 1515) was an Italian engraver and painter, whose few, rare, prints translated the rich Venetian Renaissance style of oil paintings of Giorgione and the early Titian into the medium of engraving; to further his ...
, the obtrusive signatures reveal "a remarkable willingness to intrude upon an image for the sake of self-promotion". In all, 47 of his prints are signed or carry his initials.
Many of his prints borrow elements from the work of his father, or other artists, mostly via their prints. Like other Italian printmakers in this period, his technique and especially his landscape backgrounds are heavily influenced by
Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer (; ; hu, Ajtósi Adalbert; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528),Müller, Peter O. (1993) ''Substantiv-Derivation in Den Schriften Albrecht Dürers'', Walter de Gruyter. . sometimes spelled in English as Durer (without an umlaut) or Due ...
. These influences are apparent throughout the development of his prints, whose rough chronological sequence is agreed, and some prints are direct copies of their works, or nearly so. As his style develops, influences from Giulio Campagnola,
Girolamo Mocetto, and
Marcantonio Raimondi
Marcantonio Raimondi, often called simply Marcantonio (c. 1470/82 – c. 1534), was an Italian engraver, known for being the first important printmaker whose body of work consists largely of prints copying paintings. He is therefore a key figu ...
appear. In turn, Montagna influenced Mocetto,
Nicoletto da Modena and
Giovanni Antonio da Brescia
Giovanni Antonio da Brescia was an Italian engraver of northern Italy, active in the approximate period 1490–1519, during the Italian Renaissance. In his early career he used the initials "Z.A." to sign some twenty engravings, and until recent ...
.
His prints include seven, from about 1515–20, that are close reworkings of some of the
woodcut
Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...
illustrations in an edition of
Ovid
Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...
's ''
Metamorphoses
The ''Metamorphoses'' ( la, Metamorphōsēs, from grc, μεταμορφώσεις: "Transformations") is a Latin narrative poem from 8 CE by the Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his ''magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the wo ...
'' in Italian published in Venice in 1497. The ''Birth of
Adonis
In Greek mythology, Adonis, ; derived from the Canaanite word ''ʼadōn'', meaning "lord". R. S. P. Beekes, ''Etymological Dictionary of Greek'', Brill, 2009, p. 23. was the mortal lover of the goddess Aphrodite.
One day, Adonis was gored by ...
'' (see gallery) is an eighth Ovidian print not using this source; as in many prints with mythological subjects, the two women wear essentially contemporary dress (compare the figures in the print of Europa). Examples of common northern subjects that were very rare in Italian printmaking of the period are an engraving of a soldier, and one of peasants fighting.
[Hind, 68]
File:Benedetto Montagna 3.jpg, The ''Birth of Adonis
In Greek mythology, Adonis, ; derived from the Canaanite word ''ʼadōn'', meaning "lord". R. S. P. Beekes, ''Etymological Dictionary of Greek'', Brill, 2009, p. 23. was the mortal lover of the goddess Aphrodite.
One day, Adonis was gored by ...
'', who emerges from a tree assisted by two women
File:A satyr family.jpg, A satyr
In Greek mythology, a satyr ( grc-gre, :wikt:σάτυρος, σάτυρος, sátyros, ), also known as a silenus or ''silenos'' ( grc-gre, :wikt:Σειληνός, σειληνός ), is a male List of nature deities, nature spirit with ears ...
family
File:Benedetto Montagna 2.jpg, A river god seated with a flowing urn, and a winged genius beside him
File:Benedetto Montagna 4.jpg, The '' Rape of Europa'', who prepares to sit on the bull which is being crowned by a companion
File:Montagna Venus.jpg, Venus
File:St Jerome seated beneath an arch of rock.jpg, St Jerome seated beneath an arch of rock
File:Benedetto Montagna Agony.jpg, The ''Agony in the Garden
The Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane is an episode in the life of Jesus. After the Last Supper, Jesus enters a garden where he experiences great anguish and prays to be delivered from his impending death on the cross ("Take this cup from me") ...
'', c. 1506-07
File:Benedetto montagna, madonna col bambino tra i ss. pietro, francesco, antonio da padova e paolo, 02.jpg, ''Madonna with Saints'', painting
Notes
References
*"Benezit", "Montagna, Benedetto" in Benezit Dictionary of Artists,
Oxford Art Online
Oxford Art Online is an Oxford University Press online gateway into art research, which was launched in 2008. It provides access to several online art reference works, including Grove Art Online (originally published in 1996 in a print version, ''T ...
,
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, accessed January 23, 2017
subscription required
*"BM"
British Museum, biographical details*
Hind, A.M. (1923), ''A History of Engraving and Etching'', 1923,
Houghton Mifflin Co.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (; HMH) is an American publisher of textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers and adults. The company is based in the Boston Financ ...
, reprinted
Dover Publications
Dover Publications, also known as Dover Books, is an American book publisher founded in 1941 by Hayward and Blanche Cirker. It primarily reissues books that are out of print from their original publishers. These are often, but not always, books ...
, 1963,
*Landau, David, and Parshall, Peter. ''The Renaissance Print'', Yale, 1996,
*Richardson, Francis L., "Montagna."
Grove Art Online
''Grove Art Online'' is the online edition of ''The Dictionary of Art'', often referred to as the ''Grove Dictionary of Art'', and part of Oxford Art Online, an internet gateway to online art reference publications of Oxford University Press, ...
, Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 19 Jan. 2017
subscription required*Sheehan, Jacquelyn L., in: Jay A. Levinson (ed.) ''Early Italian Engravings from the National Gallery of Art'',
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...
, Washington (Catalogue), 1973, LOC 7379624
*Zucker, Mark J., in K.L. Spangeberg (ed), ''Six Centuries of Master Prints'',
Cincinnati Art Museum
The Cincinnati Art Museum is an art museum in the Eden Park neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1881, it was the first purpose-built art museum west of the Alleghenies, and is one of the oldest in the United States. Its collection of ov ...
, 1993,
Further reading
*Zucker, M. J., ''Early Italian Masters'' (1980), 25
III/iiof ''The Illustrated Bartsch'', ed.
W. Strauss (New York, 1978–), pp. 198–230; Commentary (1984), pp. 385–432
*''Benedetto e Bartolomeo Montagna e i grandi maestri dell’incisione europea del Cinquecento'' (exh. cat., ed. F. Morello; Caldogno, Villa Caldogno, 2004)
*
AM Hind, 'Early Italian Engraving', vol.V (53 nos catalogued)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Montagna, Benedetto
Italian male painters
16th-century Italian painters
Painters from Vicenza
People from Vicenza
Italian engravers
Renaissance engravers
Year of birth uncertain