Matengna Essay Question Ideas

July 5, 2007 2:20 PM

Help me think of a suitable question for an essay on Mantegna's prints.

The essay is approx. 4,500 words so I need a fair amount of depth, I am thinking of specialising on the Battle of Sea Gods.

Particularly my essay should cover the areas of how the prints were made, how they were located and/or how they were viewed.

I am thinking of bringing iconography into the question...but would appreciate some help thinking of a nice topic to get my teeth into.

It has to be prints and Mantegna.

Thanks

posted by trashcan to Media & Arts (3 answers total)

I certainly couldn't advise - I really know very little - but I had these 2 links that might spark some further thoughts for you. They are unfortunately incomplete unless you have JSTOR access -
ONE: 'The Case for Mantegna as Printmaker' by Keith Christiansen 1993 IN: The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 135, No. 1086 (Sep., 1993) {Christiansen appears to the be the prints curator at the Met. Museum}.
TWO is an extended reply to Christiansen's article.

I had come across Mantegna while researching the background to the origins of etching, essentially looking at Daniel Hopfer, who had used some of Mantegna's works as models or inspiration. [self link - but this is totally unrelated, unless you wished to go down the path of the influential effects of Mantegna or the somesuch]
posted by peacay at 12:08 AM on July 6, 2007

That’s a tricky one, given that there seems to be so little known about Mantegna’s printmaking: from what I’ve read, opinions differ as to whether he was a prolific engraver, or an occasional (but influential) one. It’s also been claimed that none of the engravings traditionally attributed to Mantegna are actually by his hand, that his resposibilities at the Gonzaga court would have left him no time for printmaking. If I were in your shoes I would try running with the iconography, which I’d hazard would be the easiest way of bulking up the word-count. Here ’s a not-particularly helpful self-link.
posted by misteraitch at 1:20 AM on July 6, 2007

Response by poster: maybe that is an interesting angle that I could take, the fact that it may not be by his hand...how would this have worked, did he run a 'studio' at the time...or a tutelage ?

any ideas of the phrasing for an iconography analysis and how i could tie that into:

making, locating and viewing renaissance art ?

thanks

TC
posted by trashcan at 1:43 AM on July 6, 2007