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The Altar of Love
Agostino dei Musi1510/36
- Attribution
- Agostino dei Musi (Italian, c. 1490-after 1536) printed by Antonio Salamanca (Italian, 1478-1562)
- Medium
- Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
- Physical dimensions
- Image: 29.3 × 22.1 cm (11 9/16 × 8 3/4 in.); Plate/sheet: 29.7 × 22.1 cm (11 3/4 × 8 3/4 in.)
- Credit line
- The Wallace L. DeWolf and Joseph Brooks Fair Collections
CATALOGUE RECORD
Museum metadata is available under CC0. Image availability and rights are separate; consult the source record.
Source rights statement: Public domain
View the museum record ↗From the museum
In this engraving, Cupid adorns the altar of love. Because war is the opponent of love, he is shown dominating a battle relief. The artist skillfully evoked a sense of color in the architecture by varying his engraved line. The swirls in the floor tiles represent the design of colored marble, whereas the columns are left white. The classicizing elements of architecture and mythological subjects attest to the revival of antiquity in the Renaissance.
Description: Art Institute of Chicago · CC BY 4.0