A large, multi-technique intaglio by Mauricio Lasansky done in 1952-3 in Iowa. He pulled out all the stops for this composition using engraving, etching, soft-ground, electric stippler, gouging, scraping and burnishing to accomplish this surreal image.
The legend of a Firebird exists in cultures throughout the world, usually as a Phoenix, a bird that rises from the ashes of the fire and regenerates itself.
The Firebird is also the subject of a ballet and orchestral concert work by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. It was written for the 1910 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev’s ‘Ballets Russes’ company; the original choreography was by Michel Fokine, with a scenario by Alexandre Benois and Fokine based on the Russian fairy tales of the Firebird and the blessing and curse it possesses for its owner.