Dead Christ

This etching of the dead Christ supported by an angel was executed by the Dutch lawyer and amateur artist Jan de Bisschop after a drawing attributed to the great Bolognese painter Annibale Carracci, which is now in the Albertina, Vienna. The print was part of an influential drawing manual de Bisschop produced The Paradigmata Graphices Variorum Artificum, which feature etchings of the human body after Italian Renaissance and Baroque works. Published in the Netherlands in 1671, this influential drawing manual introduced aspiring northern artists to the canon of Western art, which was predominantly Italian and thus—except to the lucky few who could travel to Italy—known largely through prints and copies. De Bisschop probably never went to Italy, so he collaborated with draftsmen who had traveled there as well as studied prints and drawings of Italian art. Drawing manuals like these were common teaching tools for artists and amateurs alike, for drawing instruction began with learning to copy prints and drawings.