MARCANTONIO RAIMONDI, born in Bologna about 1480, for over three centuries enjoyed a reputation eclipsing that of any other Italian master. Of recent years, however, upon insufficient grounds, he has been somewhat pushed aside and belittled as a “reproductive engraver,” his critics wilfully forgetting the fact that, with the exception of Pollaiuolo and Mantegna, the Italian School is, in the main, derivative, and cannot boast of any original engravers of world-wide fame, such as Schongauer or Dürer. But Marcantonio was far from being a mere translator of alien works. “He is like some great composer who borrows another’s theme only to make it his own by the originality of his setting.”[11] [11] Marcantonio Raimondi. By Arthur M. Hind. The Print-Collector’s Quarterly, Vol. 3, No. 3. p. 276. The earliest influence which we may trace in Marcantonio’s work is that of the famous goldsmith and painter, Francesco Francia, with whom Marcantonio served his apprenticeship. Certain nielli, among them _Pyramus and Thisbe_ and _Arion on the Dolphin_, have been assigned to the young Marcantonio and attributed to this period of his life. _St. George and the Dragon_ is strongly reminiscent of the niello technique, with its dark shadows, against which the figures stand out in relief. The landscape is clearly borrowed or adapted from engravings in Dürer’s earlier period, the trees at the left, in particular, recalling the _Hercules_. [Illustration: MARCANTONIO RAIMONDI. ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON Size of the original engraving, 11⅞ × 8¾ inches In the British Museum] [Illustration: MARCANTONIO RAIMONDI. BATHERS Size of the original engraving, 11¼ × 9 inches In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston] [Illustration: MARCANTONIO RAIMONDI. ST. CECILIA Size of the original engraving, 10¼ × 6⅛ inches In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston] [Illustration: MARCANTONIO RAIMONDI. DEATH OF LUCRETIA Size of the original engraving, 8½ × 5¼ inches In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston] To this early period likewise belongs _Pyramus and Thisbe_, which bears the earliest date--1505--which we find upon any of his engravings. It may well have been executed during his residence in Venice, between 1505 and 1509. The _Bathers_, of 1510, is an artistic record of Marcantonio’s visit to Florence, on his way to Rome. The figures are taken from Michelangelo’s cartoon of the _Battle of Pisa_; but the landscape, including the thatched barn to the right, is a faithful copy, in reverse, of Lucas van Leyden’s plate of _Mahomet and the Monk Sergius_; for Marcantonio, like all great artists, freely borrowed his material wherever he found it, shaping it to his own ends.