Sibyl Reading, Lighted by a Child with a Torch (after Ugo da Carpi and Raphael)

This print relates to similarly themed drawings by Raphael executed around 1515. By the early sixteenth century, engraving was a well-established printmaking technique, whereas chiaroscuro woodcut had just recently been invented. An advantage of the latter was that it could render shadows and highlights. German printmakers had already been making chiaroscuro woodcuts since around 1507–1508, but Ugo da Carpi claimed to have developed the technique and won a privilege from the Venetian Senate protecting the fruits of "his invention" in 1516. Despite this privilege, both Ugo’s designs and his cutting technique were widely copied.