The Holy Family with Saint Elizabeth and the Infant John the Baptist

Andrea Mantegna

early 16th century · Pen and brown ink, brush and greenish gray and brown wash, gray wash applied to the background, probably by a later hand. · Robert Lehman Collection

The composition of this drawing is closely related to a rare engraving attributed to Andrea Mantegna’s follower Giovanni Maria da Brescia. It may be an example, not uncommon in the Veneto, of an unfinished sheet executed in preparation for an engraving. The rather stiff, schematic pen technique employed may be explained as an attempt to guide the engraver working with a burin.

Artist

Andrea Mantegna

Date

early 16th century

Medium

Pen and brown ink, brush and greenish gray and brown wash, gray wash applied to the background, probably by a later hand.

Culture

Italian

Department

Robert Lehman Collection

Credit line

Robert Lehman Collection, 1975