Naked archers shooting at a target attached to a herm, Cupid sleeping below, possibly an allegory related to vice
Medium
Engraving, red wash on the exposed penises presumably to obscure them
Dimensions
Plate: 9 7/16 × 14 in. (24 × 35.6 cm) Sheet: 11 7/16 × 15 1/2 in. (29 × 39.3 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, PECO Foundation Gift, 2017
Accession Number
2017.121
Tags
Art Historical Context
This striking engraving, titled *Naked Archers Shooting at a Target to a Herm, Cup Sleeping Below*, is attributed to Michelangelo Buonarroti with printing by Antonio Lafreri Nicolas Beatrizet around 1540–60. based on a Michelangelo design, it exemplifies the High Renaissance master's fascination with the male nude, dynamic anatomy, and mythological themes. As a print in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints collection, allowed wide dissemination of elite artistic ideas during the Renaissance, when engravings bridged the gap between workshops and collectors across Europe. The co...
About the Artist
Michelangelo Buonarroti|Antonio Lafreri|Nicolas Beatrizet · 1475–1564
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475–1564) stands as the quintessential figure of the Italian High Renaissance, a sculptor, painter, architect, and poet whose mastery across disciplines embodied the era's humanist ideals. Born on March 6, 1475, in Caprese within the Republic of Florence to a modest family—his father, Lodovico di Buonarroti Simoni, served as a minor magistrate—Michelang...