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Poets, Lovers, and Heroes in Italian Mythological Prints

• 
  Bacchanal with Silenus, ca. 1470s
  Andrea Mantegna (Italian, Paduan, 1430/31–1506)
  Engraving

  plate 11 3/4 x 17 3/16 in. (29.9 x 43.7 cm)
  Anonymous Gift, 1929 (29.44.15)

• 
  Apollo and Diana, ca. 1500–1505
  Jacopo de' Barbari (Italian, ca. 1460/70–before 1516)
  Engraving

  plate 6 1/4 x 3 15/16 in. (15.9 x 9.9 cm)
  Rogers Fund, 1920 (20.92.2)

• 
  Hercules and Antaeus, ca. 1516
  Ugo da Carpi (Italian, flourished ca. 1502–32), after Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio or Santi) (Italian, Marchigian, 1483–1520)
  Chiaroscuro woodcut from two blocks

  sheet 11 15/16 x 8 7/8 in. (30.3 x 22.6 cm)
  Rogers Fund, 1922 (22.67.80)

• 
  Fall of the Giants, ca. 1530s–40s
  Attributed to Girolamo Fagiuoli (Italian, active Bologna by 1539, died 1574), after Perino del Vaga (Italian, 1501–1547)
  Engraving

  plate 13 3/8 x 22 3/8 in. (34 x 56.8 cm)
  The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1949 (49.95.8)

• 
  Fall of the Giants, 1638
  Bartolomeo Coriolano (Italian, Bolognese, ca. 1599–ca. 1676), after Guido Reni (Italian, Bolognese, 1575–1642)
  Chiaroscuro woodcut from three blocks, printed on four sheets

  sheet 34 7/16 x 24 9/16 in. (87.5 x 64.2 cm)
  Bequest of Joseph Pulitzer, 1917 (17.50.2)

• 
  Sleeping Cupid, ca. 1630s
  Bartolomeo Coriolano (Italian, Bolognese, ca. 1599–ca. 1676), after Guido Reni (Italian, Bolognese, 1575–1642)
  Chiaroscuro woodcut from two blocks

  sheet 13 3/16 x 15 7/16 in. (33.5 x 39.2 cm)
  Rogers Fund, 1922 (22.73.3[107])

• 
  Fall of the Giants, 1663
  Salvator Rosa (Italian, 1615–1673)
  Etching with drypoint

  Gift of Georgiana W. Sargent, in memory of John Osborne Sargent, 1924 (24.63.1829)

• 
  The Dream of Aeneas, ca. 1663–64
  Salvator Rosa (Italian, Neapolitan, 1615–1673)
  Etching with drypoint

  sheet 13 3/4 x 9 1/16 in. (34.9 x 23 cm)
  Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1917 (17.50.17.85)

• 
  Psiche Curieuse, mid-1770s
  Giovanni David (Italian, 1743–1790)
  Etching and aquatint; corrected proof with notations in brown ink in margin

  sheet 12 5/8 x 8 15/16 in. (32 x 22.7 cm)
  The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1976 (1976.629)

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Mantegna and Raphael were among those who employed prints to circulate novel designs derived from their study of ancient art and literature, spreading enthusiasm for mythological subject matter throughout Europe.

Related

Timelines (6)

• Florence and Central Italy, 1400–1600 A.D.
• Florence and Central Italy, 1600–1800 A.D.
• Rome and Southern Italy, 1400–1600 A.D.
• Rome and Southern Italy, 1600–1800 A.D.
• Venice and Northern Italy, 1400–1600 A.D.
• Venice and Northern Italy, 1600–1800 A.D.

Primary Thematic Essays (6)

• Heroes in Italian Mythological Prints
• Lovers in Italian Mythological Prints
• Poets in Italian Mythological Prints
• The Printed Image in the West: Engraving
• The Printed Image in the West: History and Techniques
• The Rediscovery of Classical Antiquity

Other Thematic Essays (33)

• Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528)
• Anatomy in the Renaissance
• Annibale Carracci (1560–1609)
• Art and Love in the Italian Renaissance
• Art of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries in Naples
• Baroque Rome
• Classical Antiquity in the Middle Ages
• Couples in Art
• Death, Burial, and the Afterlife in Ancient Greece
• Domenichino (Domenico Zampieri) (1581–1641)
• Giambattista Tiepolo (1696–1770)
• Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680)
• Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778)
• Greek Gods and Religious Practices
• Hendrick Goltzius (1558–1617)
• The Labors of Herakles
• Music in Ancient Greece
• Nicolas Poussin (1594–1665)
• The Nude in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance
• Nuptial Furnishings in the Italian Renaissance
• Paolo Veronese (Paolo Caliari) (1528–1588)
• Pieter Bruegel the Elder (ca. 1525/30–1569)
• The Printed Image in the West: Drypoint
• The Printed Image in the West: Etching
• The Printed Image in the West: Woodcut
• Profane Love and Erotic Art in the Italian Renaissance
• Renaissance Drawings: Material and Function
• Titian (ca. 1488–1576 a.d.)
• Warfare in Ancient Greece
• Woodcut Book Illustration: Florence in the 1490s
• Woodcut Book Illustration: The First Illustrated Books in Italy
• Woodcut Book Illustration: Venice in the 1490s
• Woodcut Book Illustration: Venice in the Sixteenth Century

Maps (4)

• Europe, 1400–1600 a.d.
• Europe, 1600–1800 a.d.
• World, 1400–1600 a.d.
• World, 1600–1800 a.d.

Index Terms (30)

Art Movement/Style

• Baroque Art in Seventeenth– and Eighteenth–Centuries
• Rococo in Seventeenth– and Eighteenth–Century European Art

Artist

• Barbari, Jacopo de' (Italian, ca. 1460/70–before 1516)
• Carpi, Ugo da (Italian, ca. 1480–after 1525)
• Carracci, Agostino (Italian, 1557–1602)
• Carracci, Annibale (Italian, 1560–1609)
• Coriolano, Bartolomeo (Italian, Bolognese, ca. 1599–ca. 1676)
• David, Giovanni (Italian, 1743–1790)
• del Vaga, Perino (Italian, 1501–1547)
• Faccioli, Girolamo (Italian, active Bologna by 1539, d. 1574)
• Mantegna, Andrea (Italian, Paduan, 1430/31–1506)
• Raphael, or Raffaello Sanzio or Santi (Italian, Marchigian, 1483–1520)
• Reni, Guido (Italian, 1575–1642)
• Rosa, Salvator (Italian, 1615–1673)
• Tiepolo, Giovanni Battista (Italian, 1696–1770)

Geography/Place

• European Renaissance Art
• Seventeenth– and Eighteenth–Century European Art

Material and Technique

• Engraving with Mythological Theme
• Etching with Mythological Theme
• Woodcut Print from Europe

Subject Matter/Theme

• Aeneas
• Apollo
• Artemis or Diana
• Eros or Cupid
• Herakles or Hercules
• Love
• Psyche
• Satyr
• Silenus
• Zeus or Jupiter

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In the investigation and revival of classical antiquity that characterized the Italian Renaissance, the new technology of printmaking—which allowed hundreds of images to be generated from a single matrix of carved wood or incised metal—played an important role. Mantegna and Raphael were among those who employed prints to circulate novel designs derived from their study of ancient art and literature, spreading enthusiasm for mythological subject matter throughout Europe. For more than three centuries, the medium provided artists such as Agostino Carracci, Salvator Rosa, and Giambattista Tiepolo with an ideal forum, free from the constraints of official commissions, for exploring the subjects that intrigued them—from erudite allegories couched in the language of mythology to evocative pastorals inhabited by satyrs and bacchants. While many artists collaborated with professional printmakers, some learned to make their own engravings, etchings, and woodcuts. In addition, mythological designs in other media, particularly frescoes and oil paintings, were recorded in prints that fueled the fascination with pagan antiquity into the early 1800s.

The preferred mythological themes of Italian printmakers, drawn from the works of Greek and Latin poets (especially Latin—hence the bias here toward the Roman names of the gods), were those that were relevant to everyday life. The prints are grouped into three broad categories: the gods as patrons of the arts (Poets); the power of love (Lovers); and the deeds of the exemplary heroes of antiquity (Heroes). As in Ovid's Metamorphoses—the classical text most frequently consulted by artists—the narrative begins with the early days of the earth and concludes with the legendary history of Rome.

Wendy Thompson Department of Drawings and Prints, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Citation Thompson, Wendy. "Poets, Lovers, and Heroes in Italian Mythological Prints". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/mypr/hd_mypr.htm (October 2004) Further Reading Freedman, Luba. The Revival of the Olympian Gods in Renaissance Art. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Thompson, Wendy. Poets, Lovers, and Heroes in Italian Mythological Prints. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004. Related exhibitions and online features Special Exhibitions (including upcoming, current, and past exhibitions) North Italian Drawings, 1410-1550: Selections from the Robert Lehman Collection and the Department of Drawings and Prints Pen and Parchment: Drawing in the Middle Ages Poets, Lovers, and Heroes in Italian Mythological Prints Raphael to Renoir: Drawings from the Collection of Jean Bonna

These related Museum Bulletin or Journal articles may or may not represent the most current scholarship. Thompson, Wendy. "Poets, Lovers, and Heroes in Italian Mythological Prints." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 61, no. 3 (Winter, 2004). JSTOR | PDF | Supplemental PDFs "Director's Foreword" PDF