Hercules, Bacchus, Pan, and Saturn(?), 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: 6 13/16 x 9 in. (17.3 x 22.8 cm) trimmed within 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
49.97.471
Tags
Art Historical Context
This engraving by Giorgio Ghisi captures a lively mythological scene featuring Hercules, Bacchus, Pan, and possibly Saturn, drawn from designs by Francesco Primaticcio. Created in the 1560s, it belongs to a series of eight prints that record the decorative program Primaticcio devised for the ceiling of the Ulysses Gallery at the Palace of Fontainebleau. Although the original frescoed ceiling was destroyed in the eighteenth century, Ghisi’s precise engraving preserves the graceful, elongated figures and playful interactions that defined the Mannerist style favored at the French court. Primatic...
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 ...