Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

• World Regions

  All regions

  Select a region

  • North America
  • Europe
  • Central and North Asia
  • East Asia
  • Central America
  • South America
  • Africa
  • West Asia
  • Oceania
  • South and Southeast Asia

  Select a time period

  • 8000–2000 B.C.
  • 2000–1000 B.C.
  • 1000 B.C.–1 A.D.
  • 1–500 A.D.
  • 500–1000 A.D.
  • 1000–1400 A.D.
  • 1400–1600 A.D.
  • 1600–1800 A.D.
  • 1800–1900 A.D.
  • 1900 A.D.–Present
• Timelines

  by Time Period 8,000–2,000 b.c. 2,000–1,000 b.c. 1,000 b.c.–1 a.d. 1–500 a.d. 500–1,000 a.d. 1,000–1400 a.d. 1400–1600 a.d. 1600–1800 a.d. 1800–1900 a.d. 1900 a.d.–present

  by Geographical Region Africa   Central America   Central and North Asia   East Asia   Europe   North America   Oceania   South America   South and Southeast Asia  West Asia

• Thematic Essays
  • Recent Additions  |  All Thematic Essays
  • 
    Select a Thematic Category African Art American Art Ancient Near Eastern Art Art of the Americas Asian Art Byzantine Art Egyptian Art European Art Greek and Roman Art Islamic Art Medieval Art Modern and Contemporary Art Oceanic/Pacific Art Prehistory Select a Department American Decorative Arts American Paintings and Sculpture Ancient Near Eastern Art Arms and Armor Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas Asian Art The Costume Institute Drawings and Prints Education Egyptian Art European Paintings European Sculpture and Decorative Arts Greek and Roman Art Islamic Art The Libraries Medieval Art and The Cloisters Musical Instruments Nineteenth-Century, Modern, and Contemporary Art Objects Conservation Paintings Conservation Paper Conservation Photographs Robert Lehman Collection Scientific Research Textile Conservation

    ---

  • Select a Geographical Region Africa Central America Central and North Asia East Asia Europe North America Oceania South America South and Southeast Asia West Asia All Geographical Regions Select a Time Period 20,000–8000 B.C. 8000–2000 B.C. 2000–1000 B.C. 1000 B.C.–1 A.D. 1–500 A.D. 500–1000 A.D. 1000–1400 A.D. 1400–1600 A.D. 1600–1800 A.D. 1800–1900 A.D. 1900 A.D.–Present All Time Periods
    
• Works of Art
  Recent Additions
  
  

  Title Description
  Artist
  Material and Technique
  Credit Line
  Accession Number

• Index

  Artist (A–Z) | All Artists

  • A
  • B
  • C
  • D
  • E
  • F
  • G
  • H
  • I
  • J
  • K
  • L
  • M
  • N
  • O
  • P
  • Q
  • R
  • S
  • T
  • U
  • V
  • W
  • X
  • Y
  • Z

  ---

  Subject (A–Z)

  • A
  • B
  • C
  • D
  • E
  • F
  • G
  • H
  • I
  • J
  • K
  • L
  • M
  • N
  • O
  • P
  • Q
  • R
  • S
  • T
  • U
  • V
  • W
  • X
  • Y
  • Z

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
  Barbari, Jacopo de’ (Italian, active by 1497–died by 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)
  
• 
  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)
  
• 
  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)
  
• 
  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])
  
• 
  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)
  

View SlideshowView Thumbnails

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.

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)
• Music in Ancient Greece
• Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665)
• Nuptial Furnishings in the Italian Renaissance
• Paolo Veronese (Paolo Caliari) (1528
• Pieter Bruegel the Elder (ca. 1525/30-1569)
• Profane Love and Erotic Art in the Italian Renaissance
• Renaissance Drawings: Material and Function
• The Labors of Herakles
• The Nude in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance
• The Printed Image in the West: Drypoint
• The Printed Image in the West: Etching
• The Printed Image in the West: Woodcut
• 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, active by 1497–died by 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

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

Share

| More

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)

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