{
"data": {
"id": 157194,
"accession_number": "1993.8",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Skeletons, also known as Allegory of Death and Fame, 1518. Agostino Veneziano (Italian, 1490\u20131540), after Rosso Fiorentino (Italian, 1494\u20131540). 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",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Skeletons, also known as Allegory of Death and Fame",
"creation_date": "1518",
"creation_date_earliest": 1518,
"creation_date_latest": 1518,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"Italy"
],
"technique": "engraving",
"support_materials": [
{
"description": "cream(1) laid paper, perimeter mounted to cream(3) laid paper (Chatsworth mount)",
"watermarks": []
}
],
"department": "Prints",
"collection": "PR - Engraving",
"type": "Print",
"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.)",
"dimensions": {
"sheet": {
"height": 0.309,
"height_inch": 12,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.1875,
"width": 0.508,
"width_inch": 20,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.0
},
"secondary support": {
"height": 0.412,
"height_inch": 16,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.25,
"width": 0.612,
"width_inch": 24,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.125
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "lower left, in plate: \u00b7AUGUSTINUS\u00b7 / \u00b7VENETUS\u00b7DE\u00b7 / \u00b7MUSIS\u00b7 / FACIBAT\u00b7 / 1518\u00b7 / \u00b7A\u00b7V\u00b7 ; lower left, in pen and brown ink: J. 62.",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 189312,
"title": "Mannerism: Italian, French, and Netherlandish Prints, 1520-1620",
"description": "Mannerism: Italian, French, and Netherlandish Prints, 1520-1620. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 3-October 26, 1997).",
"opening_date": "1997-08-03T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 185234,
"title": "Early Italian Engraving: 1460's - 1530's",
"description": "Early Italian Engraving: 1460's - 1530's. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 25-October 27, 2002).",
"opening_date": "2002-08-25T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 205152,
"title": "The Novel and the Bizarre: Salvator Rosa\u2019s Scenes of Witchcraft",
"description": "The Novel and the Bizarre: Salvator Rosa\u2019s Scenes of Witchcraft. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 15-June 14, 2015).",
"opening_date": "2015-02-15T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 340443,
"title": "Master/Apprentice: Imitation and Inspiration in the Renaissance",
"description": "Master/Apprentice: Imitation and Inspiration in the Renaissance. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 13, 2019-February 23, 2020).",
"opening_date": "2019-10-13T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Cleveland, Ohio: The Cleveland Museum of Art; August 25-October 27, 2002. \"Early Italian Engravings: 1460s - 1530s.\"",
"opening_date": "2002-08-25T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Cleveland, Ohio: The Cleveland Museum of Art; 8/3/97 - 10/26/97. \"Mannerism: Italian, French, and Netherlandish Prints, 1520-1620.\"",
"opening_date": "1997-08-03T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art (2/15/2015 - 6/14/2015); \"The Novel and the Bizarre: Salvator Rosa's Scenes of Witchcraft\"",
"opening_date": "2015-02-15T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "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)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"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 \u201can anatomy of desiccated nudes and of bones of the dead.\u201d 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 \u201cmarasmic\u201d 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.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79947640"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1993.8-skeletons-also-known"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "\u201c1993 Annual Report.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 81, no. 6 (July 1994): 143\u2013218.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 164",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25161457"
}
],
"catalogue_raisonne": "Bartsch 424 ( XIV.320) ; Passavant VI. 60.93",
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1993.8",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1993.8/1993.8_web.jpg",
"width": "1263",
"height": "769",
"filesize": "768795",
"filename": "1993.8_web.jpg"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1993.8/1993.8_print.jpg",
"width": "3400",
"height": "2069",
"filesize": "5848589",
"filename": "1993.8_print.jpg"
},
"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1993.8/1993.8_full.tif",
"width": "5946",
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"filesize": "64589720",
"filename": "1993.8_full.tif"
}
},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 157194,
"creators": [
{
"id": 4589,
"description": "Agostino Veneziano (Italian, 1490\u20131540)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": null,
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1490",
"death_year": "1540",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
},
{
"id": 4592,
"description": "Rosso Fiorentino (Italian, 1494\u20131540)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": "after",
"role": "a design by",
"biography": null,
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1494",
"death_year": "1540",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 2
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1993-02-17T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1518,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1518",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-08-21 12:43:18.963000"
}
}