Psyche Going to Bathe
Medium
Etching and stipple engraving, printed in color; third state
Dimensions
Sheet: 10 1/2 in. × 8 in. (26.7 × 20.3 cm) (clipped impression) Image: 8 3/4 × 7 1/8 in. (22.2 × 18.1 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1917
Accession Number
17.3.3497
Art Historical Context
"Psyche Going to Bathe" captures tender moment from classical mythology, where the beautiful Psyche prepares for her secret meetings with Cupid. Created in December 1786 as a collaborative effort between engraver Francesco Bartolozzi, designer Giovanni Battista Cipriani, and publisher Emmanuel Matthias Diemar, this work reflects the late eighteenth-century fascination with ancient Greek and Roman stories reinterpreted through a refined, decorative lens. The print employs etching combined with stipple engraving, a technique Bartolozzi helped popularize in Britain. Tiny dots and short strokes b...
About the Artist
Francesco Bartolozzi|Giovanni Battista Cipriani|Emmanuel Matthias Diemar · 1727–1815
Francesco Bartolozzi (1727–1815) was an Italian engraver whose most productive period was spent in London, where he became the leading exponent of stipple engraving and a founding member of the Royal Academy. Born in Florence and trained first as a painter before turning to engraving in Venice, he established his reputation in Rome before being recruited by the English Royal Librarian Richard Dalt...