Venus and Cupid, two other goddesses and a putto, from a series of eight compositions after Francesco Primaticcio's designs for the ceiling of the Ulysses Gallery (destroyed 1738–39) at Fontainebleau
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
sheet: 7 1/4 x 9 5/16 in. (18.4 x 23.6 cm) trimmed to oval and laid down
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
49.97.472
Tags
Art Historical Context
This enchanting engraving, titled *Venus and Cupid, other goddesses and a put*, captures a graceful assembly of mythological figures from a lost decorative scheme. Created by the master engraver Giorgio Ghisi the 1560s after designs by Francesco Primaticcio, forms part of a series of eight compositions originally intended for the ceiling of the Gallery at the Palace of Fontainebleau.aticcio, a leading Mannerist artist at the French royal court, infused these works with elegant, elongated forms and dynamic poses characteristic of the Fontainebleau School, blending Italian sophistication with Fr...
About the Artist
Giorgio Ghisi|Francesco Primaticcio · 1520–1582
Giorgio Ghisi (c. 1520–1582) was one of the most accomplished engravers of the Italian Renaissance, renowned for translating the monumental compositions of Raphael, Giulio Romano, and Michelangelo into the exacting medium of the burin. Born in Mantua, he trained in an environment shaped by the legacy of Giulio Romano's decoration of the Palazzo del Te, and the grandeur of that Mannerist tradition ...