Terms and conditions of use
Raphael and his mistress
(c. 1527)
- Medium
- chiaroscuro woodcut printed from four blocks in brown, grey and black inks
- Measurements
- 30.0 × 21.8 cm (image) 30.9 × 22.7 cm (sheet, trimmed within block mark)
- Place/s of Execution
- Italy
- Catalogue/s Raisonné
- Bartsch XII.141.3
- Accession Number
- 2291-4
- Departments
- International Prints / International Prints and Drawings
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1950
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of the Joe White Bequest - Gallery location
- 16th & 17th Century Gallery - Painting and Sculpture
Mezzanine linked to Level 1, NGV International - About this work
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The history of the chiaroscuro woodcut in Italy begins with Ugo da Carpi, who made fifteen works between 1516 and 1530. Most of these were made after designs by Raphael and artists in his circle, and this, together with the woodcuts’ technical sophistication, helped establish a new market for the prints. Da Carpi’s blocks were often copied by other woodcutters, as exemplified by this reversed copy of one of his chiaroscuros of the 1520s. The subject of this enigmatic print was identified by the Italian art historian Giorgio Vasari as Raphael talking with his mistress. Other interpretations, prompted by the figures’ ancient dress, have included Ulysses talking with the allegorical figure of Fortune, or Aeneas consulting the Cumaean Sibyl.