1525
ink
paper
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
Dominant colour
Peasant and Egg Woman is a 1525 ink by Agostino dei Musi, a Renaissance work, held at National Gallery of Art.
This engraving shows two people in simple clothes. The man on the left leans on a stick, looking down at the woman kneeling beside him. She holds a basket of eggs and rests her hands on her lap. Their clothes are plain, with folds and textures marked by fine lines. The artist used tiny parallel lines to build up shadows and shapes—this is called cross-hatching. It gives the scene a detailed, almost three-dimensional look, even though it’s just ink on paper. Next, look up cross-hatching to see how this technique works in other prints.
Agostino Veneziano ("Venetian Agostino"), whose real name was Agostino de' Musi (c. 1490 – c. 1540), was an important and prolific Italian engraver of the Renaissance.
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