An Assembly of Scholars (c. 1515/1527): Art, History and Details

An Assembly of Scholars (c. 1515/1527) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Marco Dente (Italian, c. 1486–1527); Giuseppe Porta (Italian, 1515–1580).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

In this imaginary, idyllic realm, classical philosophers and scholars gather to teach and learn. The men and women in the foreground examine a book of astrological signs. Behind them, a second group studies an armillary sphere, a celestial globe invented in ancient times that became a symbol of knowledge during the Renaissance. A woodcut version of this scene appeared as an illustration in the fortunetelling book Garden of Thoughts, published in Venice in 1540. In that context, the group of three women in the foreground might be seen as the three fates, and the man with the globe as a personification of astrology.

Object facts

• Title: An Assembly of Scholars
• Date: c. 1515/1527
• Creator attribution: Marco Dente (Italian, c. 1486–1527); Giuseppe Porta (Italian, 1515–1580)
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Print
• Technique: engraving
• Dimensions: Sheet: 24 x 19.8 cm (9 7/16 x 7 13/16 in.)
• Collection: PR - Engraving
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1926.441

Collection credit

Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.