Man Carrying the Base of a Column

Agostino Veneziano was one of the chief assistants in the workshop of Marcantonio Raimondi, the premier engraver of Raphael’s drawings. Both artists engraved versions of Man Carrying the Base of a Column, which bear striking resemblances to each other; it is unclear which print came first. Raimondi reversed the compositions of his sources, and his rendition of this scene is a mirror image of the present work. Agostino Veneziano’s curious Man under a Laurel Tree (1920.2361) may also reproduce a Raphael drawing.