This exhibition features the work of one of the radical originators and innovators of the European tradition of printmaking, Marcantonio Raimondi (c. 1480-c. 1534). Marcantonio was one of the leading printmakers of the Italian Renaissance and is best known for his groundbreaking collaboration with the Renaissance artist Raphael. This is the first Marcantonio Raimondi exhibition for thirty-five years and the first ever in the UK.

Marcantonio’s varied activities as a printmaker ranged from working with a circle of poets and scholars in his native Bologna, to being involved in one of the earliest intellectual property disputes (with his famous German contemporary, Albrecht Dürer), through to his close collaboration in Rome with Raphael that resulted in some of the most important and influential images in western art. Later, he was sent to prison for making prints after drawings by Giulio Romano’s series of erotic subjects known as I Modi (The Positions).

Showcasing the world-class collections of Marcantonio’s work at The University of Manchester, housed both at the Whitworth and The John Rylands Library, the exhibition will also feature loans of outstanding prints by Marcantonio and unique drawings by Raphael from major collections including The Royal Collection Trust, Windsor; British Museum; V&A; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; Stanford University, USA; Leeds Art Gallery; and Liverpool Libraries.

Manchester University Press will be publishing an extensively illustrated catalogue to accompany the exhibition.

Dr. Edward Wouk, Lecturer in Art History and Visual Studies, University of Manchester and David Morris, Head of Collections at the Whitworth curated the exhibition.