Artist | Attributed to Andrea Schiavone (ca. 1500–1563)
Title | Diana
Date | 1540–1560
Medium | Etching printed on blue paper
Dimensions | 236 x 116 mm
Institution | The British Museum, London
Credit line | Purchased from George Cumberland in 1820, © The Trustees of the British Museum
Theme | Antiquity, Mythology, and Allegory
Museum number | H,4.83
Andrea Meldolla, called Schiavone (ca. 1500–1563), was born in modern-day Croatia in the town of Zara, Dalmatia, which was a Venetian colonial city until the end of the eighteenth century. What we know of Schiavone’s career has been shaped by the writing of Carlo Ridolfi (1594–1658), Marco Boschini (1602–1681), Paolo Pino (1534–1565), and Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574), who, in the 1568 edition of Le vite, mentioned Schiavone in the biography of Venetian artist Battista Franco (1510–1561). This etching on blue paper depicts Diana seated at left punishing one of her nymphs for tasting the forbidden fruit. Though Schiavone employed paper with tonal washes of colour for his prints, such as those in the Albertina on prepared blue paper, this is the only extant print on inherently blue paper associated with Schiavone, and indeed, the etched lines are not entirely characteristic of the artist.
EV