Teodoro Viero
Italy, b.1740, d.1819
Uomo del nueva Caledonia, isla del Mar Pacifico
- 1783-1790
- Copper engraving
- 380 x 260mm
- 2007/017
Tags: animals, birds (animals), cross-hatching, hats, men (male humans), monochrome, Oceanic, people (agents), portraits, sticks (object genre), text (layout feature)
In the collection exhibition ‘Brought to Light’, a selection of prints by Italian engraver Teodoro Viero were juxtaposed with prints by contemporary New Zealand artist Robin White to offer two views of the Pacific, from two centuries apart. Viero offers what are some of the first European portrayals of the peoples of the Pacific. Created in Venice, Italy, Viero’s are long-distance imaginings, combining European artistic conventions with borrowings from painter-travellers such as William Hodges, who travelled to the Pacific with James Cook. (Brought to Light, November 2009)