Artwork Page for Diogenes

Details / Information for Diogenes

Diogenes

c. 1524–27

Ugo da Carpi

(Italian, c. 1479–c. 1532)

after Parmigianino

(Italian, 1503–1540)
Culture
Italy, 16th century
Medium
chiaroscuro woodcut (in four shades of green)
Support
Laid paper, laid down on wove? paper
Measurements
Sheet: 47.7 x 34.7 cm (18 3/4 x 13 11/16 in.)
Credit Line
The Charles W. Harkness Endowment Fund 1923.1052
Catalogue raisonné
Bartsch 10 (XII.100)
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print
?

Did You Know?

In his Lives of the Artists (1550), Giorgio Vasari described Diogenes twice, praising it as Ugo da Carpi's most accomplished and beautiful print.

Description

Diogenes was a Greek philosopher who lived during the 300s BC. The bird in the background alludes to his cynical response to Plato, who had described man as a featherless biped. Diogenes plucked a rooster and brought it to Plato’s school, exclaiming, “Here is Plato’s man!” Ugo da Carpi was influential in the development of the chiaroscuro woodcut in Italy. The term chiaroscuro combines the Italian words chiaro (light) and scuro (dark). Invented to emulate drawings with light and dark pigments on tinted paper, the printing technique uses multiple woodblocks to layer different tones of color. This example, considered a masterpiece of Renaissance printmaking, uses four shades of green to render tonal values; the paper provides the lightest color in the composition.
A vertically oriented woodcut depicts Diogenes, a muscular, bearded man with a light skin tone. He sits facing our right, fabric billowing behind him. A limited palette of four green shades defines his form with sharp highlights and shadows. He points a stick toward open books in the foreground. A plucked rooster stands to our right. Swirling tonal blocks and wavy shaded contours shape the print's dramatic, fluid composition.

Diogenes

c. 1524–27

Ugo da Carpi, Parmigianino

(Italian, c. 1479–c. 1532), (Italian, 1503–1540)
Italy, 16th century

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