Infant Hercules asleep
Medium
Etching; third state of four, the plate is reduced in size in this state
Dimensions
Sheet: 6 in. × 4 3/4 in. (15.3 × 12 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1959
Accession Number
59.570.376
Tags
Art Historical Context
This delicate etching captures the infant Hercules in peaceful slumber, his tiny form evoking both vulnerability and the latent power of the mythological hero. Originally designed by the Italian Mannerist master Parmigianino, whose, elongated figures helped define 16th-century, the composition was later interpreted by Bohemian printmaker Wenceslaus Hollar in the mid-17th century. The result is a charming study of childhood innocence rendered with remarkable tenderness. Hollar’s etching, shown here in its third state of four, demonstrates the evolution of printmaking techniques during this per...
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...