1490
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
Dominant colour
Cleopatra is a 1490 by Marcantonio Raimondi, a Renaissance work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
This black-and-white print shows a woman lying on a bed, half-dressed with one arm resting on her head. Her body is turned slightly, and a cloth drapes over the bed’s edge. The background is filled with tight, wavy lines, making the scene feel enclosed. The artist used deep shadows and smooth shading to give the figure volume. This style was common in Renaissance prints to create a sense of three-dimensional form on flat paper. Look up chiaroscuro to see how this technique works in other art.
Cleopatra lies on a couch with an asp coiled around her arms, the composition derived from an ancient statue housed in the Vatican, rendered as a print on paper.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Marcantonio Raimondi, often called simply Marcantonio (c. 1470/82 – c. 1534), was an Italian engraver, known for being the first important printmaker whose body of work consists largely of prints copying paintings. He…
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