Sacrifice of a Swan, from "Ex Antiquis Cameorum et Gemmae Delineata/ Liber Secundus/et ab Enea Vico Parmen Incis"
Medium
Engraving; third state
Dimensions
plate: 3 7/16 x 4 7/8 in. (8.8 x 12.4 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1949
Accession Number
49.97.409
Tags
Art Historical Context
This engraving, titled *Sacrifice of a Swan*, comes from the publication *Ex Antiquis Cameorum et Gemmae Delineata*, a compilation of designs drawn from ancient cameos and gems. Created by Enea Vico and collaborators including Francesco Angeloni, Battista Franco, and Philippe Thomassin, it was published around 159–1622. The work captures a classical scene featuring men and women engaged in a ritual act involving a swan and horned elements, reflecting the Renaissance fascination with Greco-Roman antiquity and its symbolic rituals. As an engraving in its third state, the piece demonstrates the ...
About the Artist
Enea Vico|Francesco Angeloni|Battista Franco|Philippe Thomassin|Anonymous, Italian, 16th century · 1523–1567
Enea Vico (1523–1567) was born in Parma and came of age during the final, energetic decades of Italian Renaissance printmaking. By 1541 he had made his way to Rome, where he entered the orbit of the engraver and publisher Tommaso Barlacchi and began his professional career. In Rome, Vico encountered the work of the most celebrated printmakers of the preceding generation—Marcantonio Raimondi, Agost...