Amorini Celebrate the Rape of Proserpine
Rosaspina believed that he could translate the color and style of a painting only if the work was in front of him as he engraved, which is one reason it took him so long to complete this, his most famous print. Because there were long intervals between his visits to Milan, where Albani's painting was located, several proofs in different stages of completion survive. Albani's famous painting of dancing cupids, now in the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, is based on Ovid's account of Proserpina's ravishment by Pluto (the Greek Hades).
See 45.78.123 for the finished state.
See 45.78.123 for the finished state.
Artwork Details
- Title: Amorini Celebrate the Rape of Proserpine
- Artist: Francesco Rosaspina (Italian, Montescudo 1762–1841 Bologna)
- Artist: After Francesco Albani (Italian, Bologna 1578–1660 Bologna)
- Date: 1805–12
- Medium: Engraving and etching, incomplete proof impression
- Dimensions: oval image: 22 1/8 x 27 in. (56.2 x 68.6 cm)
sheet (trimmed within platemark): 24 3/8 x 29 7/8 in. (61.9 x 75.9 cm) - Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: Gift of Junius S. Morgan, 1923
- Object Number: 23.106.61
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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