The Entrance of the Emperor Sigismond into Mantua

Close up of The Entrance of the Emperor Sigismond into Mantua

A black-and-white, horizontal print depicts multiple Roman-style male figures on horseback. They hold weapons or brass musical instruments and process, somewhat chaotically, towards the viewer's right.
A black-and-white, horizontal print depicts multiple Roman-style male figures on horseback. They hold weapons or brass musical instruments and process, somewhat chaotically, towards the viewer's right.
Antoinette Bouzonnet-Stella, Plate 25 from "L'Entree de l'Empereur Sigismond a Mantoue", 1675; Engraving on paper, 9 x 19 1/2 in.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Gift of Chris Petteys; Photo by Lee Stalsworth

Antoinette Bouzonnet-Stella mastered the art of printmaking with tutelage from her uncle, painter and printmaker Jacques Stella. Invited to live in his prestigious lodgings in the Louvre, she produced copies of paintings by her uncle and 17th-century master Nicolas Poussin. She later received important commissions from French officials.

In 1675, Stella executed The Entrance of the Emperor Sigismond into Mantua for Louis XIV’s minister of finance. The commission was part of a large-scale effort by the French government to emulate the appearance of Classical Greek and Roman sculpture in French national art.

The engravings reproduced a 16th-century stucco frieze in the Palazzo del Te in Mantua, Italy, by Renaissance artists Giulio Romano and Francesco Primaticcio. Stella’s prints thus employ the grand pictorial language of ancient Rome to depict the visit of Holy Roman Emperor Sigismond to Mantua in 1433.

Exquisitely executed, the engravings by Stella illustrate the power of a narrative borrowed from antiquity, employed in 16th-century Italy, and sought after by the 17th-century French court.

Artwork Details

  • Artist

    Antoinette Bouzonnet-Stella
  • Title

    The Entrance of the Emperor Sigismond into Mantua
  • Date

    1675
  • Medium

    Engraving on paper
  • Dimensions

    6 1/2 x 15 3/4 in.
  • Donor Credit

    Gift of Chris Petteys
  • Photo Credit

    Lee Stalsworth
  • On Display

    Yes