Prometheus chained, two pendentives and an egyptian Saint Marie, bound in Monuments des Arts du Dessin, volume 3, plate 234

Art Historical Context

This 1829 lithograph, Plate 234 from Volume 3 of *Monuments des Arts du Dessin*, captures the dramatic mythological scene of Prometheus chained alongside two architectural pendentives and an Egyptian figure identified as Saint Marie. Published under the direction of Baron Dominique Vivant Denon, the influential Napoleonic-era collector and Louvre administrator, the volume served as an important early nineteenth-century survey of master drawings. The plate reproduces works associated with artists such as Jusepe de Ribera and Alonso Cano, whose intense naturalism and emotional expressiveness made them favorites for study. Lithography, a relatively new printmaking technique at the time, allowed for the wide dissemination of these images, bringing the dynamic male nude central to the Prometheus subject into the hands of artists, students, and collectors across Europe. The inclusion of the bound figure underscores the era’s fascination with classical themes of suffering and endurance, rendered here with careful attention to anatomy and dramatic lighting. Housed today in the Metropolitan Museum’s Department of Drawings and Prints, this sheet offers a vivid glimpse into how nineteenth-century publications preserved and reinterpreted earlier artistic traditions for new audiences.

About the Artist

Amaury Duval|Brunet|Jules Dagneau|Jusepe de Ribera (called Lo Spagnoletto)|Alonso Cano|baron Dominique Vivant Denon (French|French| |Spanish|Spanish|French) · 1760 |1700 | |1591 |1601 |1747 –1838 |1800 | |1652 |1667 |1825

French, 1760–1838|French, active 18th century| |Spanish, Játiva 1591–1652 Naples|Spanish, Granada 1601–1667 Granada|French, Givry 1747–1825 Paris