Vulcan's Forge
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
sheet: 12 1/8 x 16 1/4 in. (30.8 x 41.3 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Georgiana W. Sargent, in memory of John Osborne Sargent, 1924
Accession Number
24.63.1095
Tags
Art Historical Context
**Vulcan's Forge** is a captivating engraving attributed to Master FG, likely Francesco Primaticcio (4–1570), a leading Italian Mannerist artist who brought his elegant style to the French court at Fontainebleau under King Francis I. Created in an unknown date during the 16th century, this vividly captures the Roman god Vulcan—deity of fire, metalworking, and craftsmanship—at his anvil, surrounded by muscular male nudes mythical creatures like cyclopes. These figures dynamically in a bustling forge, embodying the Renaissance fascination with classical mythology and human anatomy. As an engrav...