Venus in Vulcan's Forge
1546–47
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
Plate: 12 7/8 × 17 11/16 in. (32.7 × 45 cm) Sheet: 13 1/8 × 18 1/16 in. (33.4 × 45.8 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1932
Accession Number
32.92.3
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the grand tradition of Renaissance printmaking, *Venus in Vulcan's Forge (1546–47) is an exquisite etching by Léon Davent a design by Luca Penni.ni, a prominent Italian Mannerist painter associated with the School of Fontainebleau, intricate compositions blending classical mythology with elegant, elongated figures characteristic of Mannerism. Davent, a skilled French engraver, masterfully translated this into etching—a relatively new technique at the time, prized for its fluid lines and tonal depth, allowing for subtle shading that mimicked drawing. The scene draws from Ovid's *Metamorphos...