Corsica seated before satyrs on the bank of a river, from a pair of plates for Battista Guarini's 'Il Pastor fido'
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
sheet: 3 7/16 x 4 3/4 in. (8.8 x 12.1 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Phyllis Massar, 2011
Accession Number
2012.136.663
Tags
Art Historical Context
In this delicate etching from 1640, Dutch artist Bartholomeus Bbergh captures a whimsical pastoral scene: Corsica seated gracefully before a group of playful satyrs along a riverbank. Created as one of a pair of plates illustrating Battista Guarini's popular 16th-century pastoral drama *Il Pastor fido*The Faithful Shepherd), the work evokes the idyllic, mythological world of Arcadian shepherds, nymphs, and mythical creatures that captivated 17th-century audiences across Europe. Breenbergh who spent nearly a decade in Rome during the 1620s, infused his prints with the luminous Italianate lands...
About the Artist
Bartholomeus Breenbergh
Probably was apprenticed in Amsterdam. He was one of the early Dutch italianates, that is, northern artists who travelled to Italy in the 1620s and were inspired by southern landscapes. On his return, he settled in Amsterdam and his landscapes were developed as more severe and monumental, often with historical subjects; strongly influenced by the Pre-Rembrandtists. Comment on works: Landscapes; Ru...