Metamorphoseon sive transformationum
1606
Medium
etching
Dimensions
117; 104
About this artwork
height 104 mm x width 117 mm
Art Historical Context
Antonio Tempesta's *Metamorphoseon s transformationum* (1606) is a captivating etching from a renowned series illustrating Ovid's ancient Roman poem *Metamorphoses*. just 104 mm high by 117 mm wide, small-scale print exemplifies the Italian artist's mastery of intricate detail in miniature format. Tempesta (1555–1630), a Florentine painter and printmaker bridging Mannerism and early Baroque, produced over 150 such etchings, making classical myths accessible to a wide audience during the Renaissance revival of antiquity. Etching, Tempesta's preferred medium here, involved drawing into a wax gr...
About the Artist
Antonio Tempesta · 1555–1630
Antonio Tempesta (1555–1630), known as 'Il Tempestino,' was a Florentine painter and printmaker whose extraordinary output of approximately 1,700 etchings made him one of the most influential printmakers of the early Baroque period. Born in Florence and trained under Santi di Tito and the Flemish master Joannes Stradanus, he enrolled in the Accademia del Disegno in 1576 before relocating to Rome i...