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An image of Landscape with the parable of the blind leading the blind by Giovanni Battista Fontana

Giovanni Battista Fontana

(Italy 1524–1587)

Title
Landscape with the parable of the blind leading the blind
Year
1573
Media category
Print
Materials used
etching
Edition
only state
Dimensions

19.0 x 30.1cm platemark; 26.7 x 34.2cm sheet

Signature & date
Signed and dated l.r., [incised plate] "Battista Fon/ tana. 1573".
Credit
Purchased 1995
Accession number
513.1995
Location
Not on display
Further information

An artist of the 16th-century Venetian school, Fontana was among the earliest printmakers in Italy to attempt etching. The landscape is strongly influenced by Domenico Campagnola's drawings. It is one of a small group of landscapes with biblical subjects executed by Fontana in the early 1570s. The parable relates to the folly of blind men leading other blind men and their inevitable fall into a ditch.

Bibliography (1)

Peter Raissis (Australia) (Author), Mantegna to Piranesi - Italian Old Master Prints from the Collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Domain, 1998, 8. no catalogue numbers

Exhibition history (2)

Mantegna to Piranesi - Italian Old Master Prints from the Collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 27 Jun 1998–20 Sep 1998.

Old Europe: Prints & drawings from the collection 1500-1800, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 03 Jun 2006–06 Aug 2006.