The Fall of the Giants
1663
Medium
Etching with drypoint in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
72.8 × 47.4 cm (28 11/16 × 18 11/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
16
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Just as the Giants—Gaia’s offspring—attempt to storm the throne of the Olympian gods, Jupiter brings them crashing down with a thunderbolt. He can be seen at the top in the clouds. Salvator Rosa executed this colossal composition at the pinnacle of his etching career, and dedicated it to the Florentine poet Horatio Quaranta. Rosa’s pessimistic admonition appears at the bottom of the sheet: “They are raised up high that they may be hurled down in more terrible ruin.” Multitalented with boundless...
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...