Reproducing il primo quadro del mondo

Abstract

Fedor Iordan (1800-1883) spent more than twenty years in Europe studying printmaking as a pensioner of the Russian Imperial Academy of Arts: first in Paris, then in London, and finally, from 1835 in Rome, where he embarked on his monumental engraving of Raphael’s Transfiguration. Scrutinising the production and reception of this print – which took fifteen years to complete and afforded the artist an opportunity to remain in Italy – this essay reconsiders Iordan’s work within the wider context of international printmaking and, within the emerging debates about Russia’s position in transnational artistic developments and its national distinctiveness.