Engraving as Resurrection and Reanimation in Sixteenth-Century Rome and Beyond

Focusing on the second and third decades of the sixteenth century, a period during which the relatively new medium of print was still in a state of flux, this paper examines the ways in which engraving became a mode of resurrection and reanimation of antiquity.  Of the humanist endeavor, Thomas Greene wrote “There is first the archaeological impulse downward into the earth, into the past…and then the upward impulse to bring forth a corpse, whole and newly restored, re-illuminated, made harmonious and quick.” Rome in the early sixteenth century was a city in thrall with the debris of antiquity that littered its landscape. Contemporary accounts indicate that the retrieval and collection of antique sculptural fragments was understood as a form of resurrection. However, in order to access the past, more than a resurrection was required. Led by Raphael and his workshop in Rome, European artists used the medium of engraving to enter into the fragmented material remains of antiquity in order to complete their physical form thereby eliciting their story and achieving a form of reanimation. Because engraving was growing in popularity at the same time and in the same place that antique sculpture was capturing the imaginations of artists, patrons, and collectors; because print provided an efficient and inexpensive way to encounter and interact with antique sculpture; and most importantly, because of the material affinities between the two media, engraving played a role in the resurrection and reanimation of antiquity in a way that other media did not.