Antonio
Tempesta (c1555–1630)
“Ceres ad Famem Nympham in Erisichtonis poenam amandat” (aka “Ceres
Ordering Erysicthon's Punishment” [TIB title]), 1606, plate 79 from the series
of 150 plates (plus the title plate), “Metamorphoseon sive transformationum” (The
Metamorphoses of Ovid), published by Willem
Jansz. Blaeu (aka Willem Jansz; Willem Janszoon Blaeu; Willem Jones Blaeu; Willem
Janssen; Guilelmo Janszoon Blaeum; Wilhelmus Janssonius) (1571–1638). (Note: The
first state of the frontispiece for the series has Pieter de Jode I’s name as the
publisher but this attribution is now rejected. Interestingly, Bartsch proposes
that the frontispiece is by an anonymous printmaker rather than Tempesta [see
BM no. X,3.194])
Etching on laid paper trimmed along the platemark.
Size: (sheet, trimmed unevenly) 10.5 x 11.9 cm
Inscribed below the image borderline: (left) “79”; (centre) “Ceres
ad Famem Nympham in Erisichtonis poenam amandat.”
TIB 36.716 (151) (Sebastian Buffa & Walter L Strauss [eds.]
1983, “The Illustrated Bartsch 36: Antonio Bempesta: Italian Masters of the
Sixteenth Century, Abaris Books, New York, p. 49) ;Bartsch XVII.151.716; Cicognara
4749; Brunet 695; Graesse VI(2).49; Funck 399; Henkel-Illustrierte Augsbagen
von Ovid's Metamorphosen in Bibl. Warburg Vorträge 1926, p. 60
The British Museum offers the following description of this print:
“Plate 79; Ceres in her chariot at centre, commanding a nymph to
carry out Erysichthon's punishment; with Erysichthon below to right felling a
tree in Ceres's grove, and with Famine seated outside her cave below to left.”
See also the description at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and at
the Rijksmuseum: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/402172;
http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.183912
Condition: well-printed early impression, as shown by the
crispness of the lines and signs of surface scratches still evident in the impression. The sheet is trimmed on the platemark and is in
very good condition (i.e. there are no tears, holes, folds, abrasions or significant
stains, but the paper has mellow toning/darkening appropriate to its age).
I am selling this small etching from 1606 by one of the most
famous of the Renaissance printmakers, for the total cost of AU$165 (currently
US$129.27/EUR107.57/GBP95.35 at the time of posting this listing) including
postage and handling to anywhere in the world.
If you are interested in purchasing this strong image showing in
the lower left corner what the personification of famine looks like in the form
of the Roman goddess, Fames, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com)
and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.
This print has been sold
For those unfamiliar with the series of mythological hijinks underpinning
the “Metamorphoses of Ovid”, this scene shows the Roman goddess, Ceres, in her
chariot pulled by dragons with waggly tails telling a nymph carrying an armful
of grain—one of the symbolic attributes of Ceres as the goddess of
agriculture—to pay a visit to the goddess of famine, Fames, shown at the lower
left of this illustration. The story after this is rather dreadful as the nymph
asks Fames to breathe her famine-laden breath into the king of Thessaly’s mouth
as retribution for the king (Erysichthon) having chopped down one of Ceres’
sacred trees—see him in action on the lower right of the composition. As a
result of Fames’ breathing on the king, the king becomes so hungry that he
literally eats himself … shocking story!
What may be interesting to contemplate is whether Tempesta is successful
in his illustration of what the goddess of famine should look like (according to
Ovid):
“Her hair was coarse, her face sallow, her eyes sunken; her lips
crusted and white; her throat scaly with scurf. Her parchment skin revealed the
bowels within; beneath her hollow loins jutted her withered hips; her sagging
breasts seemed hardly fastened to her ribs; her stomach only a void; her joints
wasted and huge, her knees like balls, her ankles grossly swollen” (see AD Melville [trans.] 1998, “Metamorphoses”, Oxford University Press. pp. 195–197).
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