Mercury Turning Battus to Stone
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
sheet: 7 13/16 x 10 1/2 in. (19.9 x 26.7 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Phyllis Massar, 2011
Accession Number
2012.136.579
Tags
Art Historical Context
In Herman van Swanevelt's etching *Mercury Turning Battus to Stone*, we witness a dramatic moment from Ovid's *Metamorphoses The swift-footed god Mercury, caught stealing Apollo's sacred bulls, silences the elderly herdsman Battus—who had promised secrecy but betrayed him—by transforming him into stone The composition captures muscular men, the divine Mercury in mid-gesture, and the iconic bulls, blending mythological tension with pastoral elements in a compact 7 13/16 x 10 1/2-inch sheet. Swanevelt, a 17th-century Dutch artist active during the Golden Age, was renowned for his luminous lands...
About the Artist
Herman van Swanevelt · 1603–1655
Herman van Swanevelt (1603–1655) was a leading Dutch Baroque painter, draughtsman, and etcher, celebrated for his luminous Italianate landscapes that bridged the classical ideals of Rome with the emerging naturalism of the Dutch Golden Age. Born in Woerden, near Utrecht, to a family of artisans whose lineage traced back to the renowned Lucas van Leyden, Swanevelt's early life and training remain s...