Plate 17: Aeneas welcomed by King Euandrus in Italy; from Guillielmus Becanus's 'Serenissimi Principis Ferdinandi, Hispaniarum Infantis...'
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
Sheet (Trimmed): 14 3/4 × 10 13/16 in. (37.5 × 27.5 cm)
Classification
Prints|Prints-Fete|Ornament & Architecture
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1951
Accession Number
51.501.7417
Tags
Art Historical Context
This 1636 engraving, Plate 17 from Guillielmus Becanus’s celebratory volume honoring Ferdinand, Spanish Infante, captures a pivotal moment from Virgil’s Aeneid. It shows the Trojan hero Aeneas being welcomed by King Evander upon his arrival in Italy, a scene rich with themes of hospitality, destiny, and the founding of Rome. Created by engravers Johannes Meursius and Cornelis Galle I, the print belongs to a tradition of festival books that blended classical mythology with contemporary political pageantry. As an engraving on paper, the work exemplifies the medium’s power in the seventeenth cen...