Plate 98: The Metamorphosis of Adonis (Apri dente Adonis interimitur), from Ovid's 'Metamorphoses'

Art Historical Context

Behold Plate 98 from Antonio Tempesta's masterful 1606 series of etchings illustrating Ovid's *Metamorphoses*, titled *The Metamorphosis of Adonis (Apri dente Adonis interimitur)*. This intimate print, measuring just over 4 inches square, captures a pivotal moment in classical mythology: the tragic death of the handsome youth Adonis, slain by a boar's tusk during a hunt. Tempesta, a prolific Italian Mannerist artist (1555–1630), was renowned for his dynamic depictions of animals and mythological drama, making him an ideal interpreter of Ovid's transformative tales. Etching's fine lines allowed Tempesta to render intricate details—like the fierce boar, Adonis's stricken form, and attending birds—in a compact format suited for bound books or collectors' albums. Published as part of a 140-plate set, these prints popularized ancient stories during the Baroque era, blending Renaissance humanism with vivid narrative energy. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department (Elisha Whittelsey Collection, 1951), this work exemplifies how 17th-century artists revived Ovid's myths, influencing everything from opera to garden sculptures. A tiny window into eternal tales of love, loss, and metamorphosis!

About the Artist

Antonio Tempesta · 1555–1630

Antonio Tempesta (1555–1630), known as 'Il Tempestino,' was a Florentine painter and printmaker whose extraordinary output of approximately 1,700 etchings made him one of the most influential printmakers of the early Baroque period. Born in Florence and trained under Santi di Tito and the Flemish master Joannes Stradanus, he enrolled in the Accademia del Disegno in 1576 before relocating to Rome i...