The Rape of Ganymede, 1505–15
Giovanni Battista Palumba (Master IB with the Bird) (Italian, active northern Italy and Rome ca. 1500–1516)
Woodcut; sheet 14 1/8 x 9 13/16 in. (35.8 x 24.9 cm)
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1925 (25.2.9)
Technical Glossary
Giovanni Battista Palumba (Master IB with the Bird) (Italian, active northern Italy and Rome ca. 1500–1516)
Woodcut; sheet 14 1/8 x 9 13/16 in. (35.8 x 24.9 cm)
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1925 (25.2.9)
Among Jupiter's many loves was the boy Ganymede, whom the great god, in the guise of an eagle, carried up to Olympus to serve as his cupbearer. Palumba's woodcut follows Virgil's description (Aeneid 5.250–57) of a cloak embroidered with a depiction of the Trojan prince's abduction while hunting on Mount Ida. As the beautiful youth is born aloft in the eagle's talons, his guardians stretch their hands vainly to Heaven, and the barking of his dogs rises, as Virgil writes, to the skies.
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Related Index Terms
Artist
Material and Technique
Subject Matter/Theme
- • Figure, Deity
- • Figure, Deity, Greek and Roman
- • Figure, Deity, Greek and Roman, Zeus/Jupiter
- • Figure, Mythological
- • Figure, Mythological, Europe
- • Figure, Mythological, Europe, Other
- • Literature and Literary Connections
- • Literature and Literary Connections, Greek Poetry
- • Literature and Literary Connections, Greek Poetry, Virgil: Aeneid
