Art Institute of Chicago

Battle of Sea-Gods, Left Half of a Frieze

Workshop of Andrea Mantegna

Date

1470/1500

Medium

Engraving in black on ivory laid paper, discolored to grayish brown

Culture

Italy

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Andrea Mantegna’s Battle of the Sea Gods may be the first print with a unified composition occupying more than one sheet. Unlike the Andrea Andreani Triumph of Caesar (1926.452.2–9) and the engravings after the same Mantegna paintings by his own workshop, this mythological frieze has only one seam and no disguising columns. Albrecht Dürer drew a copy of the right half of the frieze in 1494, already establishing the seminal importance of the work in the Renaissance.

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