Plate 6: marine gods and other cavorting figures
ca. 1640–70
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
Sheet: 4 5/8 × 19 1/16 in. (11.8 × 48.4 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Phyllis Massar, 2011
Accession Number
2012.136.923.2
Tags
About this artwork
Giulio Carpioni (1613-1678), a Venetian painter and printmaker, created this etching depicting marine gods and frolicking figures around 1640-70. The elongated 4⅝ by 19 1/16 inch composition exemplifies the decorative frieze format popular for ornamental prints. Carpioni specialized in mythological subjects rendered with Baroque dynamism and Venetian coloristic sensitivity, though his prints necessarily relied on linear description and tonal contrasts rather than color. The marine deities—likely...
About the Artist
Giulio Carpioni · 1613–1678
Comment on works: Allegory; Mythology