Venus, from "Twelve Muses and Goddesses"
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
Sheet (trimmed): 8 7/8 × 6 11/16 in. (22.6 × 17 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
49.97.552
Tags
Art Historical Context
Behold *Venus, from "Twelve Muses andes"*, a captivating etching created between 1540 and 1556 by Italian Mannerist artist Francesco Primatic and French engraver Léonent. Part of a renowned series celebrating classical deities, this print depicts the goddess of love in an elegant, elongated pose typical of Mannerism—a stylish evolution from the High Renaissance, marked by graceful distortion and refined sophistication. Primaticcio, a key figure in France's School of Fontainebleau under King Francis I, designed these compositions to blend Italian elegance with French innovation, making mytholog...
About the Artist
Francesco Primaticcio|Léon Davent · 1504–1570
Primaticcio was the most influential Italian artist in France in the 16th century. Together with Rosso Fiorentino they created a style of mixing stucco decoration with mannerist paintings that became known as the Fontainebleau school. Italian painter, architect and sculptor. Comment on works: Religious; Allegory; History.