Antique Lidded Urn with Hybrid Male Sphinxes and a Female Mask on the Body, from Vases after the Antique

Art Historical Context

Enea Vico’s engraving *Antique Lidded Urn with Hybrid Male Sphinxes and a Female Mask on the Body* captures the Renaissance fascination with classical antiquity. Created in 1543 or shortly thereafter, the print belongs to the series *Vases after the Antique*, in which Vico meticulously recorded ornate vessels believed to survive from ancient Rome. Working in the medium of engraving, he translated sculptural details into crisp, reproducible lines that allowed artists, architects, and collectors across Europe to study these forms. The urn itself is richly ornamented with hybrid male sphinxes flanking the body and a prominent female mask at its center. These motifs reflect the Renaissance interest in mythological creatures and theatrical imagery drawn from ancient funerary and decorative arts. As a print rather than the original object, the work exemplifies how engravings served as both scholarly documents and sources of inspiration for contemporary design. Today housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Department of Drawings and Prints, Vico’s sheet underscores the period’s blend of archaeological curiosity and artistic invention. Its precise technique and ornamental focus continue to offer viewers a window into how sixteenth-century artists reimagined the classical past.

About the Artist

Enea Vico · 1523–1567

Enea Vico (1523–1567) was born in Parma and came of age during the final, energetic decades of Italian Renaissance printmaking. By 1541 he had made his way to Rome, where he entered the orbit of the engraver and publisher Tommaso Barlacchi and began his professional career. In Rome, Vico encountered the work of the most celebrated printmakers of the preceding generation—Marcantonio Raimondi, Agost...