The Crucifixion of Polycrates
c. 1662
Medium
Etching, with drypoint, in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Plate: 47 × 72.8 cm (18 9/16 × 28 11/16 in.); Sheet: 52.6 × 77 cm (20 3/4 × 30 3/8 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
45205
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Salvator Rosa was an important printmaker as well as an admired painter. The artist’s oversize etching of the Greek Polycrates’ crucifixion by his Persian enemy (c. 522 b.c.) probably preceded his painting of the same subject. Rosa’s slightly simplified painting appears in reverse, likely because he worked from the print’s preparatory cartoon to create it. The legend beneath the print reads: “Polycrates, tyrant of Samos, famous for his wealth and good fortune, when he was captured by Oretes, Sat...
About the Artist
Salvator Rosa · 1615–1673
Salvator Rosa was born in 1615 in Arenella, on the outskirts of Naples, into a world of artistic ambition and turbulent talent. His early training came through his maternal uncle, the painter Paolo Greco, and his brother-in-law Francesco Fracanzano, himself a pupil of the great Spanish-born Neapolitan master Jusepe de Ribera. Rosa showed a fierce independence from the start, resisting his father's...