The contest between Apollo and Marysas 1535 - 1545

This chiaroscuro woodcut, made by Niccolò Vicentino in the first half of the 16th century, shows the mythological contest between Apollo and Marsyas. This scene wasn’t new, of course. Artists had been interpreting it for centuries. What is new here, though, is the way that Vicentino uses line and tone to create a mood of heightened drama. Look at the way Apollo’s figure seems to burst out of the oval frame, a symbol of the artist's creative power. Vicentino worked in Rome during the High Renaissance, a time when artists were obsessed with classical antiquity. This print reflects a growing interest in the individual genius of the artist and how it could improve on classical forms. To understand this print better, we need to look at the culture of printmaking in 16th-century Italy. Who was buying these prints and how were they used? Research into the art market and the printmaking guilds will tell us more about the social world that made this image possible.