Minneapolis Institute of Art

Mars Bound by Cupid

Master of 1515

Date

c. 1515–20

Medium

Drypoint

Department

European Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

This idiosyncratic artist gets his name from the one engraving he dated. Despite his anonymity, the Master of the Year 1515 had a deep well of personality. Eschewing the accepted religious and moralizing themes of the day, he concentrated on wit and whimsy. In Mars Bound by Cupid , a mock-serious Cupid incapacitates the god of war, who is seated ignominiously on a heap of his own armor. The master is known for using drypoint more often than any other sixteenth-century artist, a technique that accounts for the soft, lush ink pooling in the shadows in this remarkably fresh print. Italy, Europe

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