deem-data/ArtiFact huggingface dataset:
Portret van Wolfgang Spaltinger
Object type: print
Date: 1756 – 1756
Materials: paper
Techniques: engraving
Artist: christoph melchior roth
Artist role: print maker
Artist dates: 1720 – 1798
Subjects: functionaries and dignitaries (with name) ~ episcopal protestant churches, historical persons

Prent uit: Würfel, Andreas. Diptycha ecclesiae Sebaldianae (...). Neurenberg: Christoph Melchior Roth, 1756.
Stella
Object type: photograph
Date: 1860 – 1869
Techniques: albumen silver print, glass negative
Artist: pierre-louis pierson
Artist role: artist
Artist nationality: french
Artist dates: 1822 – 1913
Subjects: portraits,women
Tweezers
Object type: tweezer
Date: 1640 – 1550
Materials: bronze, copper alloy
Location: egypt
Gezicht op de Biblioteca Marciana op het San Marcoplein te Venetië
Object type: print
Date: 1670 – 1750
Materials: paper
Techniques: etching
Artist: Anonymous
Subjects: exterior ~ representation of a building, civic architecture; edifices; dwellings, public library
Fotoalbum met 113 fotografische reproducties op carte-de-visite-formaat van 17de-eeuwse Nederlandse schilderijen
Object type: slip in album
Date: 1860 – 1880
Materials: cardboard, leather, metal, paper
Techniques: albumen print
Location: netherlands

Fotoalbum met een leren omslag en goud op de snee, met 30 pagina's, waarvan één pagina geen foto's bevat. Het fotoalbum bevat 113 ingestoken cart-de-visite albumine-afdrukken, allen fotoreproducties van schilderijen (en prenten naar schilderijen) van Nederlandse schilders zoals Rembrandt van Rijn, Gerard Dou, Ferdinand Bol, Frans van Mieris en David Teniers (II). Bij het album gevoegd is een handgeschreven index, waarvan de werken en vervaardigers niet geheel kloppen en waarvan de laatste nummers (106 tot en met 113) ontbreken.
Interieur met een moeder en twee kinderen
Object type: print
Date: 1836 – 1913
Materials: paper
Techniques: etching, engraving
Location: amsterdam
Artist: willem steelink (i)
Artist role: draughtsman, print maker
Artist dates: 1826 – 1913
Subjects: hands folded with fingers knit, mother and child(ren), woman and child(ren) (family group)
Inscriptions: collector's mark: Lugt 2233

Interieur met een zittende moeder. Twee kinderen staan bij haar. Zij houden hun handen gevouwen.
Suisse
Object type: print
Date: 1845 – 1851
Materials: paper
Techniques: tone lithography
Location: paris
Subjects: castle, mountains (+ landscape with figures, staffage), bridge in city across river, canal, etc., river (+ landscape with figures, staffage), prospect of village, silhouette of village (+ city(-scape) with figures, staffage)
Inscriptions: collector's mark: Lugt 2228a, check stamp: Lugt 1397c
Boer forts at Mafeking. Boerenfort te Mafeking
Object type: album leaf
Date: 1899 – 1900
Materials: cardboard, paper, photographic support
Techniques: gelatin silver print
Location: mafeking
Artist: jan van hoepen
Artist role: fotograaf
Artist dates: 1856 – 1922
Subjects: defensive measures (military) (+ land forces)

Onderdeel van Fotoalbum met opnames van de Tweede Boerenoorlog (1899-1902).
Lulah Falls, Lookout Mountain, Georgia
Object type: photograph
Date: 1864 – 1865
Techniques: albumen silver print, glass negative
Artist: isaac h. bonsall
Artist role: artist
Artist nationality: american
Artist dates: 1833 – 1909
Subjects: waterfalls,landscapes

On first glance, this photograph of Lulah Falls appears to be an idyllic landscape of an imposing, rocky waterfall. On closer inspection, however, one notices that the figures—some standing at attention for the photographer, others sprawled casually on the boulders in the foreground—are Union soldiers. Here is a view of the Civil War in striking contrast to the scenes of fortifications, camps, bridges, and destruction so prolifically documented by the camera during that era. The photographer, Isaac H. Bonsall of Cincinnati, served in the Union's Army of the Cumberland as a staff photographer beginning in September 1862. His initial duties were to photograph maps at their headquarters in Cincinnati, but he later traveled with the army to Tennessee, broadening his subject matter to include portraiture and war-related landscape along the way. During the Union's six-month siege of Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1863, Bonsall spent his time photographing the areas surrounding nearby battle sites such as Lookout Mountain, where the Army of the Cumberland contributed to a Union victory on November 24, 1863. Lulah Falls, situated on the south side of the mountain in northwest Georgia, was, for a moment, worlds away from the war.
Cape
Object type: cape
Date: 1865 – 1870
Materials: silk
Culture: american
The Infante Philip of Spain, later Philip II of Spain (1527–98, r. 1556)
Object type: medal
Date: 1549 – 1549
Materials: bronze, patina
Techniques: casting
Artist: leone leoni
Artist role: artist
Artist nationality: italian
Artist dates: 1504 – 1590
Subjects: men,profiles
Schetsboek met 40 bladen
Object type: sketchbook
Date: 1760 – 1785
Materials: paper, parchment, pencil
Artist: johann goll van frankenstein (i)
Artist role: amateurtekenaar
Artist dates: 1722 – 1785

Inhoud: studies van een vrouw met slijpsteen, hooiende boeren, zeilschepen, figuurstudies; gezichten op/bij: Maarssen, in de Plantage te Amsterdam, aan het IJ buiten de Haarlemmerpoort in Amsterdam, tolhuis aan de noordzijde van het IJ, Breukelerweert, Breukelen, de steenoven bij Maarssen, de bierbrouwerij bij Breukelen, bij Tienhoven, de hermitage bij Maarssen, Maarsseveen, Marie Hofstede bij Maarssen, de Vecht bij Maarssen, ’t Zwarte Varken, ’t Kraiennest, de korenmolen bij Breukelen.
Model harpoon
Object type: model harpoon
Date: 2650 – 2650
Materials: copper alloy
Location: egypt
De man met de bonte muts. / derde vervolg
Object type: popular print
Date: 1832 – 1850
Materials: paper
Techniques: colour, letterpress printing
Location: rotterdam
Artist: theodorus johannes wijnhoven-hendriksen
Artist role: publisher
Subjects: head-gear: hat (+ fur used for clothes), tales and fairy tales
Inscriptions: collector's mark: Lugt 2760

Blad met 2 voorstellingen uit het verhaal van de man met de bontmuts. De erfgenamen van een oud kasteel ontdekken in een onderaardse gang een man met bontmuts op het hoofd die, achter een tafel gezeten, dreigt met een knuppel. Het blijkt evenwel dat het een houten pop is, welke in beweging gebracht wordt door het trappen op de treden die naar het onderaardse verblijf leiden. Onder elke voorstelling een tweeregelig vers. Genummerd rechtsboven: No. 7.
Marble portrait bust of a man
Object type: portrait bust of a man
Date: 34 – 66
Materials: marble
Culture: roman
Subjects: men,portraits

This powerful portrait bust incorporates a large expanse of chest, a stylistic characteristic indicating that it was carved toward the middle of the first century A.D. Most surviving portraits worked in this hard realistic manner date to the first century B.C., but the style continued in fashion until the mid-first century A.D. and was revived intermittently thereafter.
Gezicht op Huis te Swieten, 1607
Object type: book illustration
Date: 1725 – 1803
Materials: paper
Techniques: engraving, etching
Location: amsterdam
Artist: abraham rademaker
Artist role: draughtsman, print maker
Artist dates: 1676 – 1735
Subjects: castle, bridge
Inscriptions: collector's mark: Lugt 2228

Prent ook gebruikt in: Rademaker, Abraham. Kabinet van Nederlandsche outheden en gezichten: vervat in 300 konstplaaten (…). 2 delen. Amsterdam: Willem Barents, 1725, dl. 1, ill. 95.

Na 1725 is deze prent nog in verschillende heruitgaven verschenen, uitgegeven in 1727-1733, 1770-1771 en 1792-1803. Uit welke uitgave het huidige exemplaar precies komt is niet na te gaan.
Saluutschoten bij het uitzeilen van de driemaster Macassar
Object type: print
Date: 1847 – 1847
Materials: paper
Techniques: etching
Artist: egidius linnig
Artist role: draughtsman, print maker
Artist dates: 1821 – 1860
Subjects: sailing-ship, sailing-boat, firearms: cannon
Inscriptions: collector's mark: Lugt 2228
Bell
Object type: bell
Date: 1 – 1000
Materials: bronze
Culture: iranian
Gezicht op Mechelen
Object type: album leaf
Date: 1657 – 1657
Materials: paper
Techniques: etching, hand coloring
Subjects: riding a horse, ass, or mule; rider, horseman, city-view, and landscape with man-made constructions, 'en route', traveller under way, mechelen

Gezicht op de stad Mechelen. Twee wegen leiden naar de stad. Op de voorgrond onder meer een vrouw met kind op een paard. Haar man staat ernaast. Ze wachten op een jongen die op zijn knieën zijn spullen inpakt. De prent maakt deel uit van een album.
Christus geeft raad aan een rijke jongeling
Object type: print
Date: 1712 – 1712
Materials: paper
Techniques: etching
Location: amsterdam
Artist: jan luyken
Artist role: draughtsman, print maker
Artist dates: 1649 – 1712
Subjects: a rich young man who came to see christ goes away sorrowful
Inscriptions: number: ‘85’, collector's mark: Lugt 2228

Proefdruk van illustratie uit: Luyken, Jan. De schriftuurlyke geschiedenissen en gelykenissen van het Oude en Nieuwe Verbond, 2 delen. Amsterdam: Wed. Pieter Arentsz II en Cornelis van der Sys, 1712, dl. II.
Veue et Perspective de la Porte sainct George de Nancy
Object type: print
Date: 1650 – 1650
Materials: paper
Techniques: engraving, etching
Artist: israël silvestre
Artist role: draughtsman, print maker, publisher
Artist dates: 1621 – 1691
Subjects: city-view, and landscape with man-made constructions, city-gate
Inscriptions: collector's mark: Lugt 240

Prent maakt deel uit van een ongenummerde serie van dertien prenten.
Portret van Adelberdt von der Recke-Volmerstein
Object type: print
Date: 1825 – 1825
Materials: paper
Techniques: lithograph
Location: berlin
Subjects: adult man, historical persons
Inscriptions: collector's mark: Lugt 2228
Twee albumbladen met namen en afbeeldingen van componisten, filosofen, schrijvers en wetenschappers
Object type: photograph
Date: 1872 – 1875
Materials: paper, photographic support
Techniques: albumen print, writing
Location: haarlem
Artist: Anonymous
Subjects: vienna, richard wagner, berlin, traveler, france, paris, jean racine, pierre corneille, walter scott, scholar, philosopher, historical persons, portrait of a musician, composer

Onderdeel van Regnib's miniaturenalbum van vorsten, beroemdheden en historische en fantasietaferelen.
Terracotta squat lekythos (oil flask)
Object type: squat lekythos
Date: 420 – 420
Materials: terracotta
Culture: greek, attic
Subjects: trojan war,men

Philoktetes on Lemnos The painter, as yet unidentified, has created an exceptionally expressive composition on this vase. It concerns Philoktetes, a Greek hero who inherited the arrows of Herakles, thus their prominence here. In the story of the Trojan War, these arrows were necessary for the conquest of the city. On the way from Greece, Philoktetes was bitten by a snake that had caused such a painful and foul-smelling wound that he had to be left on the island of Lemnos. Philoktetes, downcast, sits under a barren tree and holds his bandaged foot—a picture of utter despondency. Ultimately, he will be rescued and healed.
Fragment
Object type: fragment
Date: 1801 – 1833
Materials: metal thread, velvet
Subjects: flowers,leaves
Wreedheden in een dorp aan het water, 1672
Object type: print
Date: 1673 – 1675
Materials: paper
Techniques: engraving, etching
Location: netherlands
Artist: Anonymous
Subjects: massacre ~ war, bodegraven, rampjaar (disaster year)

Prent ook gebruikt in: Bosch, Lambert van den. Toneel des oorlogs, opgerecht in de Vereenigde Nederlanden; door de wapenen van de koningen van Vrankrijk en Engeland, Keulsche en Munstersche (…). 4 delen. Amsterdam: Jacob van Meurs en Johannes van Someren, 1675, dl. 3, p. 128.

In tegenstelling tot de andere prenten in deze reeks is deze voorstelling niet opgenomen in: Valckenier, Peter en Andreas Muller. Das verwirrte Europa (…). 3 delen. Amsterdam: Hendrik en Dirk Boom, Joannes van Someren en Jacob van Meurs, 1677-1683, dl. 1 (1677).

Deze prent is gekopieerd naar een prent van Romeyn de Hooghe (RP-P-OB-77.198). Die prent is gebruikt in: Wicquefort, Abraham van. Avis fidelle aux veritables hollandois. Touchant ce qui s’est passé dans les villages de Bodegrave & Swammerdam, & les cruautés inoüies, que les françois y ont exercées (…). S.l. [Den Haag]: s.n.[Daniel en Johannes Steucker], 1673.
Portret van Antonio de Fluvià
Object type: print
Date: 1588 – 1588
Materials: paper
Techniques: engraving
Artist: philippe thomassin
Artist role: print maker, publisher
Artist dates: 1562 – 1622
Subjects: historical persons, military orders, e.g.: knights templars, knights of malta, teutonic knights ~ roman catholic church
Inscriptions: collector's mark: Lugt 2228

Deze prent maakt deel uit van een grotere prent met vier portretten die later is verknipt. Prent waarschijnlijk uit: Veltroni, Tolomeo. Statuta hospitalis Hierusalem. [Rome: s.n., 1588].
Figures des Contes de La Fontaine
Object type: photomechanical print
Date: 1880 – 1880
Materials: paper
Techniques: photoaquatint
Artist: Anonymous
Subjects: devil(s) and demons, angels
Inscriptions: collector's mark:, collector's mark: Lugt 2228

Martial Potémont maakte etsen naar de tekeningen van Fragonard, die zich bevonden in een manuscript in de collectie van de verzamelaar Eugène Paillet. Rouquette bood hem aan de tekeningen zo exact mogelijk in prent te laten brengen door Martial Potémont: dit resulteerde in een serie van 57 etsen. Vervolgens werden deze gereproduceerd door middel van heliogravure. Deze omslag betreft een editie voor de letter, "Eau forte pure", de 1e staat van 3 waar men uit kon kiezen bij deze serie.
The Vampire
Object type: print
Date: 1853 – 1853
Materials: ink, paper
Techniques: etching
Artist: charles meryon
Artist role: artist
Artist nationality: french
Artist dates: 1821 – 1868
Subjects: birds,buildings,cities,paris

Meryon was plagued by mental illness and spent the last years of his brief life in an asylum. The dark, gothic tenor that characterizes many of his prints has been interpreted as symptomatic of his tumultuous life. This print, taken from his album Eaux-fortes sur Paris, shows a grotesque gargoyle from Notre-Dame Cathedral against an aerial view of the expanding French capital. Surrounded by a flock of darkly colored birds, the sculpture takes on a menacing, monstrous appearance, especially as it dominates the right half of the composition. Meryon added a verse of his own creation to this later state of the print, describing the figure as an "insatiable vampire, eternal lust" who "covets its food in the great city." The artist continued to revise the plate over the course of a decade, producing a total of ten states of the etching before his untimely death in 1868.
Gold Tumi
Object type: knife
Date: 1101 – 1500
Materials: gold
Culture: chimú
Location: peru
Andrew from the Martyrdom of the Twelve Apostles
Object type: print
Date: 1472 – 1553
Techniques: woodcut
Artist: lucas cranach the elder
Artist role: artist
Artist nationality: german
Artist dates: 1472 – 1553
Subjects: apostles,crucifixion,saints
Gezicht op de Marktkerk te Hannover
Object type: photograph
Date: 1875 – 1900
Materials: cardboard, paper, ink
Techniques: photograph
Location: hannover
Artist: Anonymous
Subjects: tower, clock tower ~ monumental adornment, church (exterior), street
Inscriptions: collector's mark: ‘KUNSTNIJVERHEIDSCHOOL QUELLINUS AMSTERDAM FRANS HALSSTRAAT 14.’, inscription: ‘CWN.’, inscription: ‘Gothische Kunst - Duitschland.’, collector's mark: ‘INSTITUUT VOOR KUNST-NIJVERHEIDSONDERWIJS GABRIËL METSUSTRAAT No. 16 AMSTERDAM’
Piece
Object type: piece
Date: 1601 – 1700
Techniques: embroidery
Subjects: human figures
Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Erbstein (1757–1836)
Object type: medal
Date: 1883 – 1883
Materials: nickel
Artist: anton scharff
Artist role: artist
Artist nationality: austrian
Artist dates: 1845 – 1903
Portrait of a Woman
Object type: painting, miniature
Date: 1590 – 1590
Materials: parchment
Artist: nicholas hilliard
Artist role: artist
Artist nationality: british
Artist dates: 1542 – 1619
Subjects: portraits,women
Bolton Priory.  From the South
Object type: photograph
Date: 1850 – 1859
Techniques: albumen silver print
Artist: joseph cundall
Artist role: fotograaf, schrijver
Artist nationality: british
Artist dates: 1818 – 1895
Subjects: churches
Cord Knob (Kurigata)
Object type: cord knob kurigata
Date: 1801 – 1900
Materials: gold alloy, silver alloy, gold, silver
Culture: japanese
Location: japan
Subjects: leaves
Karel VI tot Duits keizer gekroond
Object type: history medal
Date: 1711 – 1711
Materials: silver
Techniques: striking
Artist: Anonymous
Subjects: charles vi (holy roman emperor)

Zilveren penning. Voorzijde: borststuk man met keizerskroon in statiegewaad binnen omschrift. Keerzijde: wereldbol binnen ring van wolken en omschrift; afsnede : opschrift
's Hertogenbosch Markt
Object type: album leaf
Materials: paper
Techniques: photograph
Artist: Anonymous
Subjects: historical persons, market, den bosch

Deze pagina maakt deel uit van een album.
Portret van Petrus Cupus
Object type: print
Date: 1788 – 1788
Materials: paper
Techniques: engraving, etching
Location: amsterdam
Subjects: rotterdam
Inscriptions: collector's mark: Lugt 240, inscription: ‘Petrus Cupus 10 d. p. 4.’

Latere staat prent gebruikt als boekillustratie in: Kok, Jacobus. Vaderlandsch woordenboek : met kaarten, plaaten en pourtraitten. Amsterdam: Johannes Allart, 1785-1796. Deel X.
Erotische voorstelling
Object type: print
Date: 1680 – 1698
Techniques: woodcut
Artist: sugimura jihei
Artist role: print maker
Subjects: group-sex
Shawl
Object type: shawl
Date: 1800 – 1810
Materials: silk, wool
Culture: indian

Empire style favored the cotton or mull dress, often sheer and invariably light in weight. In order for this garment to serve year-round, it had to be modified by layering. The popularity of the Kashmir shawl--and its European and Scottish copies--in the early years of the nineteenth century not only preserved decorum with these delicate dresses, but also protected the wearers from chill weather.
Portret van Johann Cicero van Brandenburg
Object type: print
Date: 1650 – 1749
Materials: paper
Techniques: engraving, etching
Artist: Anonymous
Subjects: historical persons, ruler, sovereign, armorial bearing, heraldry
Inscriptions: inscription: ‘480’
Unfinished Funerary Stela for a Family, Space Left Blank for Name
Object type: stela, unfinished
Date: 1479 – 1458
Materials: limestone
Location: egypt
Subjects: eyes,men,women,hieroglyphs
A naked man at left showing an axe to a woman at right
Object type: print
Date: 1510 – 1527
Techniques: engraving
Artist: marcantonio raimondi
Artist role: artist
Artist nationality: italian
Artist dates: 1475 – 1534
Subjects: male nudes,women,axes
Le Serment d'Amour
Object type: print
Date: 1786 – 1786
Techniques: etching
Artist: jean honoré fragonard
Artist role: artist
Artist nationality: french
Artist dates: 1732 – 1806
Subjects: love,couples,men,women,putti
Amulet: Harpokrates
Object type: amulet, harpokrates
Date: 664 – 332
Materials: faience
Location: egypt
Gezicht op het oude stadhuis van Hoorn
Object type: book illustration
Date: 1894 – 1894
Materials: paper
Techniques: photograph
Location: leipzig
Artist: Anonymous
Subjects: townhall, hoorn (north holland)

Afdruk uit: Krook, L. Architectur der Niederlande. Leipzig: Baumgärtner's Buchhandlung, 1894.
Dress
Object type: dress
Date: 1887 – 1887
Materials: silk, wool
Culture: american
Landscape with Catacombs
Object type: drawing
Date: 1530 – 1540
Materials: chalk, ink
Techniques: brush, pen, wash
Artist: domenico beccafumi
Artist role: artist
Artist nationality: italian
Artist dates: 1484 – 1551
Subjects: arches
Figure of a horse
Object type: figure
Date: 601 – 800
Materials: earthenware, pigment
Culture: chinese
Subjects: horses
Cylinder Seal or Bead
Object type: cylinder seal, geometric decoration, crossing line
Date: 1981 – 1295
Materials: faience
Location: egypt
Ornamenten met papegaaien
Object type: sketchbook leaf
Date: 1874 – 1945
Materials: pencil
Artist: carel adolph lion cachet
Artist role: draughtsman, print maker
Artist dates: 1864 – 1945
Subjects: ornament derived from animal forms

Blad 6 recto uit een schetsboek met 9 bladen.
Vis, liggend naar links, met inkepingen
Object type: drawing
Date: 1775 – 1833
Materials: ink, paper, pencil
Techniques: brush, pen
Artist: jean bernard
Artist role: draughtsman, print maker
Artist dates: 1765 – 1833
Subjects: bony fishes
Teabowl
Object type: teabowl
Date: 1601 – 1700
Materials: clay, glaze
Techniques: overglaze
Culture: japanese
Von Juden und andern un-glaubigen
Object type: book illustration
Date: 1518 – 1518
Materials: paper
Techniques: woodcut
Subjects: persecution of heretics, civil law, the jews, jewish life
Inscriptions: collector's mark: Lugt 2228

Prent voor het eerst gebruikt in: Tengler, Ulrich. Neü Layenspiegel. Straatsburg: Matthias Hupfuff, 1518.
Brief aan Philip Zilcken
Object type: letter
Date: 1911 – 1911
Materials: ink, paper
Techniques: pen, writing
Location: amsterdam
Artist: martin monnickendam
Artist role: draughtsman, painter, print maker
Artist dates: 1874 – 1943
Subjects: amsterdam, draughtsman, sculptor, abraham hesselink, publisher, the hague, painter, philip zilcken, drawing
Inscriptions: collector's mark: ‘RPK’
De advocaten
Object type: popular print
Date: 1894 – 1959
Materials: paper
Techniques: lithograph, letterpress printing
Location: liège
Artist: monogrammist jgr
Artist role: print maker
Subjects: lawyer, attorney at law, court session (court of justice)
Inscriptions: collector's mark: Lugt 2760

Blad met 8 voorstellingen over twee vrienden die elkaar voor de rechter slepen. Onder elke afbeelding een onderschrift. Genummerd rechtsboven: No 200.
Shallow
Object type: print
Date: 1913 – 1913
Techniques: etching
Artist: anders zorn
Artist role: artist
Artist nationality: swedish
Artist dates: 1860 – 1920
Subjects: female nudes
Maisaka, from an untitled series of the fifty-three stations of the Tokaido
Object type: print
Date: 1804 – 1804
Techniques: woodblock print
Location: japan
Artist: katsushika hokusai 葛飾 北斎
Artist role: artist
Artist nationality: japanese
Artist dates: 1760 – 1849
HB Sketches
Object type: print
Date: 1847 – 1847
Materials: paper
Techniques: tone lithography
Location: london
Subjects: politician, tancred, (scenes from) specific works of literature: tasso, gerusalemme liberata, political caricatures and satires
Inscriptions: stamp: ‘HB Subscribers Copy’

Spotprent uit 1847 met Lord Russell als de ridder Tancredi in het betoverde woud in Tasso's La Gerusalemme liberata. De bomen hebben de hoofden van politici waaronder de Ier Daniel O'Connell. Uitgegeven als nr. 884 in de serie HB Sketches.
Gold Shoe Buckle
Object type: shoe buckle
Date: 600 – 600
Materials: gold, silver
Culture: langobardic

This group of objects was found in the grave of a Langobardic horseman, who was buried in his warrior dress, with weapons, shield, helmet, and the fittings for his horse. What remains are the many gold pieces that would have ornamented his clothing and equipment, and they attest to the great wealth of the Langobardic aristocracy within a generation of settling in Italy.
The Tame Magpie
Object type: painting
Date: 1707 – 1708
Materials: canvas, oil
Artist: alessandro magnasco
Artist role: artist
Artist nationality: italian
Artist dates: 1667 – 1749
Subjects: birds,children,men,women,cats,barrels

Magnasco’s exuberant technique and fantastical subject matter set him apart from his contemporaries. Among picturesque ruins, people from the fringes of society gather to watch the spectacle of a man trying to teach a magpie to sing—an impossible task. This highly theatrical painting was probably executed while Magnasco was working for the Medici family in Florence, a time when he shared preferences in palette and technique with the artist Sebastiano Ricci. Though this is a finished painting, the light touch was inspired by an appreciation of a sketch-like aesthetic in the circles of both artists and collectors.