Search Results:

Viewing Record 1 of 1
 


Maker(s):Formerly attributed to Dente, Marco; Salviati, Francesco, after
Culture:Italian (ca.1486-1527); Italian (1510-1563)
Title:An Assembly of Scholars
Date Made:ca. 1515-1527
Type:Print
Materials:engraving on laid paper with watermark
Measurements:Frame: 17 13/16 in x 15 in x 3/4 in; 45.2 cm x 38.1 cm x 1.9 cm; Sight: 9 1/4 in x 7 in; 23.5 cm x 17.8 cm
Accession Number:  AC 2011.06
Credit Line:Given in memory of William and Mary Heath
Museum Collection:  Mead Art Museum at Amherst College
2011-06.jpg

Label Text:
This engraving engages themes of humanistic inquiry and the world of science. In a setting marked by a classical arch, a group of scholars, including two women, is gathered in an outside garden, engaged in learned discussion. Six people in the foreground are pondering a book bearing astrological signs that lies open on the woman’s lap. In the center of the busy composition two older men and what are likely two pupils watch a young scholar demonstrating the principles of the armillary sphere. A solitary figure in the middle ground has left both groups and directs the viewer’s attention to a party in the shadow of the arch, assembled around a table, immersed in thought over the writings in front of them. Further up, in the distance beyond them, are three figures engrossed in the observation of nature, a mode of study highly encouraged by humanistic scholars.

Recent scholarship suggests that the print was made after a woodcut by Giuseppe Porta Salviati, an Italian painter apprenticed to Francesco Salviati who also became an accomplished mathematician. His illustration was used as the frontispiece of the fortune-telling book “Le sorti di Francesco Marcolino da Forli: Intitolate giardino di pensieri” (“The Oracle of Francesco Marcolino Called the Garden of Thoughts”), published by Francesco Marcolini in Venice in 1540. Since Marco Dente died in 1527, this engraving was likely done in his manner by one of his pupils.

MW, 2013

Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+2011.06

Research on objects in the collections, including provenance, is ongoing and may be incomplete. If you have additional information or would like to learn more about a particular object, please email fc-museums-web@fivecolleges.edu.

Viewing Record 1 of 1