Four Little Combats: Achilles and Hector
Engraving, part of a set of four small, rectangular prints with black backgrounds, depicting combat scenes, likely influenced by German masters, particularly the Beham brothers. This print, first of the series, depicts a combat between Hector, on the center-left, and Achilles, on the right. The two heroes fight riding horses, surrounded by soldiers on foot. Delaune seems to have borrowed, in this print, from the Medieval tradition that highlighted Hector's belonging to the "nine knights," endowed with chivalrious qualities so highly appreciated in the Middle Ages, by representing him almost at the center of the print, while leaving Achilles on a second plane, and illustrating several barbarian men attacking him with uncivilized arms: a horse's jaw, a skull and a torch. This print is also closely related to a print of the same subject, of similar dimentsions, by Hans Sebald Beham.
Artwork Details
- Title: Four Little Combats: Achilles and Hector
- Artist: Etienne Delaune (French, Orléans 1518/19–1583 Strasbourg)
- Artist: Closely related to Sebald Beham (German, Nuremberg 1500–1550 Frankfurt)
- Date: before 1573
- Medium: Engraving: first state
- Dimensions: Sheet (trimmed): 1 3/8 × 3 9/16 in. (3.5 × 9 cm)
Image: 1 1/16 × 3 1/4 in. (2.7 × 8.2 cm) - Classifications: Prints, Ornament & Architecture
- Credit Line: Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1926
- Object Number: 26.50.7
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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