Plate 105: Diana aiming her bow toward Chione, who is accompanied by two children, in another scene at left Mercury approaches the sleeping Chione, from a series illustrating 'The Metamorphoses' of Ovid
1606
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
Sheet: 4 3/4 x 5 1/4 in. (12 x 13.4 cm) Plate: 4 1/8 x 4 11/16 in. (10.5 x 11.9 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Phyllis Massar, 2011
Accession Number
2012.136.835
Tags
About this artwork
Antonio Tempesta (1555-1630), a prolific Florentine printmaker, created this etching as Plate 105 from his comprehensive series illustrating Ovid's "Metamorphoses," published in 1606. The composition depicts the tragic tale of Chione, daughter of Daedalion, showing Diana aiming her bow toward the mortal woman who boasted of her beauty, while a secondary scene shows Mercury approaching the sleeping Chione. The Latin inscription reads "Chione ob linguae procacitatem a Diana transfigitur" (Chione i...
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...