Orpheus seated playing his lyre, and charming the animals

Peregrino da Cesena

ca. 1500–1520 · Niello print (in the manner of nielli) · Drawings and Prints

The earliest known Italian engravings are niello prints. The design was taken from a small, incised silver plaque the engraved lines of which were filled with a dark, enamel-like substance that when pressed in to the paper produced the image. The plaques decorated household and liturgical objects. Originally used by goldsmiths to check work in progress, the prints soon became valued in their own right. Peregrino engraved metal plates in the same style and scale as the niello plaques specifically to create printed images.

Artist

Peregrino da Cesena

Date

ca. 1500–1520

Medium

Niello print (in the manner of nielli)

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1928