Parnassus Profaned
after 1520
Medium
Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image/plate/sheet: 35.5 × 50.6 cm (14 × 19 15/16 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
226873
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Artists in Renaissance Rome not only copied the antique but also parodied it in sometimes sensational ways. Here the mysterious Italian engraver H. F. E. turned Raphael’s Apollo on Parnassus fresco (and Marcantonio’s print, 1919.2554) into a sinuous, sexually charged bacchanal. Like the intertwined foreground couples, the overtly amorous back- ground trees are a far cry from the upright, slender trunks in Raphael’s work. They may reference a travel literature satire by the ancient writer Lucian,...