Benedetto Montagna

His prints are mostly relatively small, with the longest side rarely more than about 200 mm or 8 inches. The figures are often smaller relative to the overall size than in other contemporary Italian prints. Most of his prints are prominently signed with his full name, unlike the initials or monograms used by many printmakers of this period. Like Giulio Campagnola, the obtrusive signatures reveal "a remarkable willingness to intrude upon an image for the sake of self-promotion". In all, 47 of his prints are signed or carry his initials. Many of his prints borrow elements from the work of his father, or other artists, mostly via their prints. Like other Italian printmakers in this period, his technique and especially his landscape backgrounds are heavily influenced by Albrecht Dürer. These influences are apparent throughout the development of his prints, whose rough chronological sequence is agreed, and some prints are direct copies of their works, or nearly so. As his style develops, influences from Giulio Campagnola, Girolamo Mocetto, and Marcantonio Raimondi appear. In turn, Montagna influenced Mocetto, Nicoletto da Modena and Giovanni Antonio da Brescia. His prints include seven, from about 1515–20, that are close reworkings of some of the woodcut illustrations in an edition of Ovid's Metamorphoses in Italian published in Venice in 1497. The Birth of Adonis (see gallery) is an eighth Ovidian print not using this source; as in many prints with mythological subjects, the two women wear essentially contemporary dress (compare the figures in the print of Europa). Examples of common northern subjects that were very rare in Italian printmaking of the period are an engraving of a soldier, and one of peasants fighting. • Illustration — The Birth of Adonis, who emerges from a tree assisted by two women • Illustration — A satyr family • Illustration — A river god seated with a flowing urn, and a winged genius beside him • Illustration — The Rape of Europa, who prepares to sit on the bull which is being crowned by a companion • Illustration — Venus • Illustration — St Jerome seated beneath an arch of rock • Illustration — The Agony in the Garden, c. 1506-07 • Illustration — Madonna with Saints, painting