The Battle around the Shield and Lance (c. 1527): Artwork and History

The Battle around the Shield and Lance (c. 1527) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio (Italian, 1500/05–1565) after Raffaello Sanzio, called Raphael (Italian, 1483-1520).

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

Amidst the chaos of battle, a shield and lance rest quietly in the foreground. These icons of military prowess are surrounded by bucking horses, falling soldiers, and spears. It is ironic that Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio chose to depict the Romans as skilled cavalrymen, since the cavalry was the weakest part of the Roman army until the late Imperial Period (A.D. 3rd/4th century). The inscription at the bottom of the engraving attributes the design for this print to Raphael; it may preserve a rejected idea for his Battle for the Milvian Bridge in the Sala di Costantino in the Vatican, Rome.

Object facts

• Title: The Battle around the Shield and Lance
• Date: c. 1527
• Artist attribution: Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio (Italian, 1500/05–1565) after Raffaello Sanzio, called Raphael (Italian, 1483-1520)
• Place of origin: Italy
• Medium: Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
• Dimensions: 34.1 × 48.5 cm (13 7/16 × 19 1/8 in.)
• Type: Print
• Department: Prints and Drawings
• Reference number: 1887.279

Collection credit

Elizabeth Hammond Stickney Collection

View the original

Explore the artwork in the Art Institute's collection, including its image and the museum's current catalogue details.

The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.