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Poets, Lovers, and Heroes in Italian Mythological Prints
Andrea Mantegna: Bacchanal with Silenus Jacopo de' Barbari: Apollo and Diana Ugo da Carpi after Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio or Santi): Hercules and Antaeus Attributed to Girolamo Fagiuoli after Perino del Vaga: Fall of the Giants Bartolomeo Coriolano after Guido Reni: Fall of the Giants Bartolomeo Coriolano after Guido Reni: Sleeping Cupid Salvator Rosa: Fall of the Giants Salvator Rosa: The Dream of Aeneas Giovanni David: Psiche Curieuse


Overview

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.


Carracci, Agostino (Italian, 1557-1602), Rosa, Salvator (Italian, 1615-1673), Tiepolo, Giovanni Battista (Italian, 1696-1770), Print, Engraving, Print, Etching, Print, Woodcut, Europe, Figure, Deity, Greek and Roman, Figure, Mythological, Europe, Europe, period, Renaissance Europe, Barbari, Jacopo de' (Italian, ca. 1460/70-before 1516), Mantegna, Andrea (Italian, Paduan, 1430/31-1506), Coriolano, Bartolomeo (Italian, Bolognese, ca. 1599-ca. 1676), David, Giovanni (Italian, 1743-1790), Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio or Santi) (Italian, Marchigian, 1483-1520), Love, Sex, and Marriage

Department of Drawings and Prints

Annibale Carracci (1560-1609), Heroes in Italian Mythological Prints, Greek Gods and Religious Practices, Athletics in Ancient Greece, Death, Burial, and the Afterlife in Ancient Greece, Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665), Warfare in Ancient Greece , Lovers in Italian Mythological Prints, Music in Ancient Greece, Neoclassicism, Renaissance Drawings: Material and Function, The Printed Image in the West: Drypoint, The Printed Image in the West: Engraving, The Printed Image in the West: Etching, The Printed Image in the West: History and Techniques, The Printed Image in the West: Woodcut, The Rediscovery of Classical Antiquity, Baroque Rome, Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680), Anatomy in the Renaissance, Albrecht Durer (1471-1528), Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617), Giambattista Tiepolo (1696-1770), Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778), Poets in Italian Mythological Prints, American Neoclassical Sculptors Abroad, Art of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries in Naples, 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, Abridged List of Rulers: Europe,

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.,

Europe, 1400-1600 A.D., Europe, 1600-1800 A.D.