Ceres Searching for Her Daughter
Medium
Engraving
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1928
Accession Number
28.82.4
Art Historical Context
In "Ceres Searching for Her Daughter," the viewer encounters a poignant moment from classical mythology: the Roman goddess Ceres desperately seeking her daughter Proserpina after her abduction. Created as an engraving through the collaboration of German painter Adam Elsheimer and Dutch printmaker Hendrick Goudt, the work translates Elsheimer’s intimate, atmospheric compositions into a reproducible format that reached wider audiences in the early seventeenth century. Elsheimer was celebrated for his innovative handling of light and nocturnal scenes, qualities that Goudt skillfully preserved th...