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Zeus as an eagle, abducting Ganymede

1500–1510
Not on view
Among Jupiter's many loves was the boy Ganymede, whom the god, in the guise of an eagle, carried off 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 Virgil writes, as the beautiful youth is born aloft in the eagle's talons, his guardians stretch their hands in vain to Heaven and the barking of his dogs rises to the skies.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Zeus as an eagle, abducting Ganymede
  • Artist: Giovanni Battista Palumba (Italian, active ca. 1500–1520)
  • Date: 1500–1510
  • Medium: Woodcut (appears to be a later impression)
  • Dimensions: Sheet: 14 3/16 × 9 13/16 in. (36 × 25 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1925
  • Object Number: 25.2.9
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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Leda and the Swan set in a landscape, Giovanni Battista Palumba Italian, Engraving, partly hand colored
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Sallet in the Shape of a Lion's Head, Steel, copper, gold, glass, pigment, textile, Italian
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