De liefdes van de goden

About this artwork

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Art Historical Context

Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio’s engraving *De liefdes van de goden* captures the Renaissance fascination with classical mythology. Created between 1515 and 1565, this intimate print (215 × 139 mm) translates the amorous adventures of gods and mortals into finely incised lines on copper. Caraglio, an Italian engraver active in Rome and later at European courts, specialized in reproducing designs by leading painters such as Rosso Fiorentino, allowing mythological narratives to reach a wider audience beyond the walls of palaces. Engraving was prized in the sixteenth century for its precision and reproducibility. Caraglio’s technique—combining delicate hatching with crisp contours—conveys both the sensuality and the dramatic tension of divine love stories drawn from Ovid. Such prints served not only as works of art but also as portable pattern books, influencing goldsmiths, painters, and collectors across Europe. Today the sheet offers visitors a glimpse into how Renaissance artists reimagined antiquity: gods appear at once idealized and vividly human, their passions rendered with the refined elegance characteristic of Mannerist printmaking.

About the Artist

Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio · 1500–1565

Italian, Parma or Verona ca. 1500/1505–1565 Krakow (?)