Art Institute of Chicago

Sea Battle

Master of the Die

Date

c. 1532

Medium

Engraving in black on cream laid paper

Culture

Italy

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

A prolific printmaker and print designer, known only by the small die with which he signed his prints, the Master of the Die was an artist in the orbit of Raphael’s student Marcantonio Raimondi. The Sea Battle serves as a prime example of the revival of Classical style during the Renaissance, as well as an example of the subject matter and designs used for architectural decoration. The mythological scenes on the hulls of the boats suggest simplified, fictive reliefs after the Antique, and could just as easily have appeared on an elevated painted frieze of a Roman palace.

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