Infant Hercules asleep
Medium
Etching; third state of four, the plate is reduced in size in this state
Dimensions
Sheet: 5 7/8 × 4 11/16 in. (14.9 × 11.9 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1917
Accession Number
17.50.18-160
Tags
Art Historical Context
Behold the enchanting *Infant Hercules Asleep*, an etching after a design by the Italian Mannerist master Parmigianino (Giamo Francesco Maria Mazzola 1503–1540), brilliantly reproduced by the Bohemian virtuoso Wenceslaus Hollar 1639. This state of four captures a tender mythological moment: the divine baby Hercules slumbers peacefully amid trees and watchful eagles, evoking the hero's mythical origins as Zeus's son. Parmigianino's graceful, elongated forms—hallmarks of Mannerism—infuse the scene with ethereal elegance, while Hollar's etching translates it into intricate lines on a compact shee...
About the Artist
Parmigianino (Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola)|Wenceslaus Hollar · 1503–1540
Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola, known as Parmigianino, was born on January 11, 1503, in Parma, into a family of artists. The eighth child of painter Filippo Mazzola and Donatella Abbati, he lost his father to the plague at age two and was raised by his uncles, Michele and Pier Ilario Mazzola, modestly talented painters who taught him the techniques of the craft. By his late teens, Parmigianino d...