The First Copyright?
The Meeting of Saints Anne and Joachim at the Golden Gate, around 1506
- Marcantonio Raimondi (around 1480–around 1530), after Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528)
- Engraving
Marcantonio Raimondi copied this scene from a series of woodcuts by the German artist Albrecht Dürer. Raimondi made some changes, but he retained Dürer’s famously recognisable ‘AD’ monogram, depicted on the floor in the foreground, to capitalise on the high demand for Dürer’s prints. According to the artist and biographer Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574), Dürer was incensed by Raimondi’s attempts to profit off of his creations and filed what is considered to be the earliest lawsuit over artistic copyright. Vasari’s account, published in 1568, claimed that the court gave Raimondi the right to copy Dürer’s compositions, but not his monogram.
Part of The Curiosity Cabinet exhibition 'FAKE OR REAL? - King's X The Courtauld Gallery'.