De Barbari | Apollo and Diana
(POSSIBLE ALTERNATIVE TO GIULIO CAMPAGNOLA) De’ Barbari’s engraving shows Apollo in his role as sun god, in the moment when night, symbolised by Apollo’s sister Diana, goddess of the moon, give way to day. Although best known for his monumental map of Venice, de’ Barbari regularly explored mythological subjects in the format of small, delicate engravings. He worked in Venice during the final decade of the Quattrocento, moving to Germany in c. 1500 where he came into contact with Dürer. As with his near contemporary, Giulio Campagnola, de’ Barbari was a learned man, and a participant within humanist discourse of the period. Contemporary to the present sheet, which was likely executed in c. 1505, he wrote a treatise on the nobility of painting for Frederick the Wise, elector of Saxony. For the print room visit, this sheet could be used to address: The influence of and dialogue between Dürer and Venetian artists at around the turn of the fifteenth century The influence of Mantegna’s style on the next generation of Venetian artists Interest in idealised human proportions in early sixteenth-century engravings, and the links between this subject and architecture The stylistic importance of de’ Barbari engravings The development and dissemination of Italian / Venetian engraving styles across Europe