The Power of Women: The Poet Virgil Suspended in a Basket
Medium
woodcut
Classification
Department
Prints
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of the Print Club of Cleveland in memory of Charles T. Brooks
Accession Number
1935.116
Tags
male
About this artwork
This woodcut is from a series depicting the power of women, a popular early 16th-century theme. The series highlights a woman’s capacity to use beauty, charm, and ruse to thwart even the cleverest men. Here, Van Leyden illustrated the cunning of the Roman emperor’s daughter. According to legend, the poet Virgil fell in love with the maiden, but she objected and punished him for his impudence. After promising to raise Virgil to her bedroom window in a basket, she left him hanging halfway. The pri...