Battle scene

Antonio Tempesta
Italy
1555 – 1630

Battle scene
1605
pen & brown ink over traces of black chalk on paper
Place made
Rome
Medium
pen & brown ink over traces of black chalk on paper
Dimensions
38.7 x 50.5 cm (sight)
Credit line
Gift of William Bowmore AO OBE through the Art Gallery of South Australia Foundation 2007
Accession number
20077D30
Signature and date
Signed and dated bot c. - l.r., pen & brown ink "Antonio Tempesta Inventor et fecit/ ano inbillai 1605".
Media category
Drawing
Collection area
European drawings

  • WALL LABEL: A Beautiful Line: Italian prints from Mantegna to Piranesi, 2012


    Antonio Tempesta’s etchings and drawings of battle scenes are complex, multi-figured compositions constructed around various perspectival points. This creates a sense of suspense and drama and provides the viewer with the thrill of entering the narrative. In this drawing the viewer is thrust into the heart of the carnage, while in the etching The defeat of the Ethiopians the viewer looks at the unfolding battle from the central vantage point of the Ethiopian commander. 

     

    This drawing carries an inscription that suggests it is a preparatory drawing for a print. Although the etching after this drawing is not known, it is close in design to Alexander the Great battling with the Persians, published in 1608, celebrating the exploits of the Macedonian general.

     

    Maria Zagala, Associate Curator of Prints, Drawings & Photographs

  • A beautiful line. Italian prints from Mantegna to Piranesi

    Art Gallery of South Australia, 20 August 2010 – 31 October 2010

  • Reimagining the Renaissance

    Art Gallery of South Australia, 20 July 2024 – 13 April 2025
  • [Journal] Art Gallery of South Australia Newsletter.
    Art Gallery of South Australia Newsletter Vol. 6, no. 16 (Sept. 1985)-v. 6, no. 54 (Mar. 1989)
  • [Journal] Art Gallery of South Australia Foundation.
  • [Book] Zagala, Maria. A Beautiful Line : Italian prints from Mantegna to Piranesi.