The Madonna with the Saints

This print is one of six Carracci did on a visit to Venice in 1582 after Veronese’s paintings. An altarpiece canvas in the San Francesco della Vigna Church served as its model. A single imprint of the engraving’s first rendering, in which only some of the details are elaborated, has survived (in the British Museum, London). Owing to this we know that Agostino first outlined the contours of figures on the matrix in dry point and only then completed the work in the engraving technique. He did not proceed systematically when elaborating the engraving; rather than rendering one figure or section after another, he executed minor details in a random manner.