Ceres Seated on Clouds with Two Goddesses and Two Putti, from a series of eight compositions after Francesco Primaticcio's designs for the ceiling of the Ulysses Gallery (destroyed 1738-39) at Fontainebleau
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
sheet: 7 1/4 x 9 11/16 in. (18.4 x 24.6 cm) platemark
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1949
Accession Number
49.95.1886
Tags
Art Historical Context
This exquisite engraving, created by the master printmaker Giorgio Ghisi in 1560s after designs by Francesco Primaticcio, immortalizes a lost masterpiece from the opulent Palace of Fontainebleau.itled *Ceres Seated on with Two Goddesses and Putti*, it formed part of an eight-composition series adorning the ceiling of the Ulysses Gallery—a lavish space commissioned for the French royal court. Primaticcio, an Italianist invited by King Francis I, infused the School of Fontainebleau with dynamic poses, elongated figures, and ethereal mythology, blending Italian sophistication with French grandeur...
About the Artist
Giorgio Ghisi|Francesco Primaticcio · 1520–1582
Giorgio Ghisi (c. 1520–1582) was one of the most accomplished engravers of the Italian Renaissance, renowned for translating the monumental compositions of Raphael, Giulio Romano, and Michelangelo into the exacting medium of the burin. Born in Mantua, he trained in an environment shaped by the legacy of Giulio Romano's decoration of the Palazzo del Te, and the grandeur of that Mannerist tradition ...