id: 157194 accession number: 1993.8 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1993.8 updated: 2023-03-14 12:01:52.123000 Skeletons, also known as Allegory of Death and Fame, 1518. Agostino Veneziano (Italian, 1490–1540), after Rosso Fiorentino (Italian, 1494–1540). Engraving; sheet: 30.9 x 50.8 cm (12 3/16 x 20 in.); secondary support: 41.2 x 61.2 cm (16 1/4 x 24 1/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 1993.8 title: Skeletons, also known as Allegory of Death and Fame title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1518 creation date earliest: 1518 creation date latest: 1518 current location: creditline: Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund copyright: --- culture: Italy, 16th century technique: engraving department: Prints collection: PR - Engraving type: Print find spot: catalogue raisonne: Bartsch 424 ( XIV.320) ; Passavant VI. 60.93 --- CREATORS * Agostino Veneziano (Italian, 1490–1540) - artist * Rosso Fiorentino (Italian, 1494–1540) - a design by --- measurements: Sheet: 30.9 x 50.8 cm (12 3/16 x 20 in.); Secondary Support: 41.2 x 61.2 cm (16 1/4 x 24 1/8 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: description: cream(1) laid paper, perimeter mounted to cream(3) laid paper (Chatsworth mount) watermarks: inscriptions: inscription: lower left, in plate: ·AUGUSTINUS· / ·VENETUS·DE· / ·MUSIS· / FACIBAT· / 1518· / ·A·V· ; lower left, in pen and brown ink: J. 62. translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Mannerism: Italian, French, and Netherlandish Prints, 1520-1620 opening date: 1997-08-03T00:00:00 Mannerism: Italian, French, and Netherlandish Prints, 1520-1620. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 3-October 26, 1997). title: Early Italian Engraving: 1460's - 1530's opening date: 2002-08-25T00:00:00 Early Italian Engraving: 1460's - 1530's. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (August 25-October 27, 2002). title: The Novel and the Bizarre: Salvator Rosa's Scenes of Witchcraft opening date: 2015-02-15T00:00:00 The Novel and the Bizarre: Salvator Rosa's Scenes of Witchcraft. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 15-June 14, 2015). title: Master/Apprentice: Imitation and Inspiration in the Renaissance opening date: 2019-10-13T04:00:00 Master/Apprentice: Imitation and Inspiration in the Renaissance. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 13, 2019-February 23, 2020). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * Cleveland, Ohio: The Cleveland Museum of Art; August 25-October 27, 2002. "Early Italian Engravings: 1460s - 1530s."
Cleveland, Ohio: The Cleveland Museum of Art; 8/3/97 - 10/26/97. "Mannerism: Italian, French, and Netherlandish Prints, 1520-1620."
The Cleveland Museum of Art (2/15/2015 - 6/14/2015); "The Novel and the Bizarre: Salvator Rosa's Scenes of Witchcraft" --- PROVENANCE Sir Peter Lely (1618-1680), London, stamp (Lugt 2092), lower center, in black ; Duke of Devonshire, Chatsworth, sold: Christie's, London, Dec. 5, 1985, lot 71, repr. ; purchased from (R.M. Light & Co., Santa Barbara, CA) date: footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: Although for centuries scholars have attempted to understand the allegorical meaning of this print, 16th-century artist and author Giorgio Vasari described it simply as “an anatomy of desiccated nudes and of bones of the dead.” A central figure of winged Death stands over an interred skeleton, surrounded by a variety of skeletal and living human figures who appear to debate the fate of the soul. At far left is a “marasmic” man, a type of sun-dried body used by anatomists to study the muscles without removing the skin. Rosso Fiorentino, who designed the composition of this print to be engraved by Agostino Veneziano, was a Florentine contemporary of Michelangelo who planned a book on anatomy that was never published. wall description: The opposite of the beautiful temptress, the hag embodied the nature of witchcraft. Old and hideous, the hag was associated with Invidia, the personification of Envy, because of her jealousy of youth and fertility. Agostino Veneziano provided designs for several widely disseminated prints of demonic imagery and witchcraft. In the Allegory of Death and Fame, Invidia is the skeletal creature peering over the right shoulder of winged Death. Her representation heavily influenced 17th-century artists' representations of hags. The stereotypical elderly witch with exposed, sagging breasts and sunken features is derived from the sinking, skeletal figures of Veneziano's frieze-like compositions. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1993.8/1993.8_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1993.8/1993.8_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1993.8/1993.8_full.tif