Alexander in the Studio of Apelles
1662
Medium
Etching and drypoint on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Plate: 45.5 × 27.3 cm (17 15/16 × 10 3/4 in.); Sheet: 46.7 × 28.5 cm (18 7/16 × 11 1/4 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
137057
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Salvator Rosa most likely intended this large print as a companion to his The Genius of Salvator Rosa (2002.463). It shows a story from the Roman author Pliny of how Alexander the Great was humbled and mocked by the famous Greek painter Apelles. As the inscription describes, in the studio Alexander made many uninformed comments, and Apelles advised him to be silent, saying that the boys engaged in grinding colors were laughing at him. Like Apelles, Rosa had no qualms about declaring his superior...
About the Artist
Salvator Rosa · 1615–1673
Salvator Rosa was born in 1615 in Arenella, on the outskirts of Naples, into a world of artistic ambition and turbulent talent. His early training came through his maternal uncle, the painter Paolo Greco, and his brother-in-law Francesco Fracanzano, himself a pupil of the great Spanish-born Neapolitan master Jusepe de Ribera. Rosa showed a fierce independence from the start, resisting his father's...