Cornelis Cort (Netherlandish, 1533/36-1578)
after Federico Zuccaro (Italian, c. 1542-1609)
The Calumny of Apelles
INV-1313
Cornelis Cort (Netherlandish, 1533/36-1578)
after Federico Zuccaro (Italian, c. 1542-1609)1572
The Calumny of Apelles
Cornelis Cort (Netherlandish, 1533/36-1578) after Federico Zuccaro (Italian, c. 1542-1609) →engravingprint
Date
1572
Medium
Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image: 40.8 × 55.6 cm (16 1/8 × 21 15/16 in.); Plate/sheet, trimmed slightly within platemark: 42 × 55.7 cm (16 9/16 × 21 15/16 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Print and Drawing Fund and Stanley Field Endowment
Cornelis Cort’s engraving recreates a lost painting by the ancient Greek artist Apelles, an allegory of slander known only from a detailed description by the ancient historian Lucian. Renaissance artists including Sandro Botticelli, Andrea Mantegna, Albrecht Dürer, and even Pieter Brueghel produced drawings and paintings based on the historian Lucian’s descriptions in homage to various artists of antiquity. Dürer was even called “the Apelles of the North.” Cort’s engraving includes an illusionistic heavily sculptured frame, which highlights prints’ ability to mimic paintings as objects, as well as revive their iconography.