Presentation of Christ

Prints and Drawings

c. 1502

after Lorenzo di Ottavio Costa
Italian, c. 1460-1535

Born in Ferrara, Costa studied there with Cosimo Tura before moving to Bologna in the early 1480s. He traveled throughout Italy, ultimately settling in Mantua as court artist to the powerful Gonzaga family. This rich engraving of the biblical account of Christ’s introduction to the teachers at the temple in Jerusalem is after a 1502 painting by Costa for the church of Santa Maria della Vita in Bologna. It is unclear whether this work was engraved by the artist himself or was copied by an anonymous Bolognese engraver.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Lorenzo di Ottavio Costa
Title: Presentation of Christ
Place: Italy (Artist's nationality)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1497–1507
Medium: Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions: 15.5 × 13.2 cm (6 1/8 × 5 1/4 in.)
Credit Line: Bequest of Mrs. Potter Palmer, Jr.
Reference Number: 1956.995
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/4236/manifest.json

Jay A. Levenson, Prints of the Italian Renaissance: A Handbook of the Exhibition, (National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. 1973), no. 333.

Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, “Prints of the Italian Renaissance,” June 23–October 7, 1973; also traveled to San Francisco, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, November 10, 1973–January 13, 1974.

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