Cycnus en Hyrie

About this artwork

collector's mark: Lugt 240

Art Historical Context

**Cycnus en Hyrie** is a delicate etching by Antonio Tempesta, a prolific Italian artist active in late Renaissance and early Baroque Rome and Florence. Created in 1606, this small print measures just 104 mm high by 117 mm wide, perfect for intimate collector's albums or scholarly study. Tempesta, renowned for his dynamic etchings of mythology, hunts, and landscapes, drew inspiration from classical sources like Ovid's *Metamorphoses*. Here, the title evokes the tragic tale of Cycnus, transformed into a swan, and his mother Hyrie, who weeps into a fountain—symbols of profound grief and metamorp...

About the Artist

Antonio Tempesta · 1555–1630

Antonio Tempesta (1555–1630), known as 'Il Tempestino,' was a Florentine painter and printmaker whose extraordinary output of approximately 1,700 etchings made him one of the most influential printmakers of the early Baroque period. Born in Florence and trained under Santi di Tito and the Flemish master Joannes Stradanus, he enrolled in the Accademia del Disegno in 1576 before relocating to Rome i...