Sine Cerere et Baccho Friget Venus [Without Ceres and Bacchus Venus Grows Cold]

Art Historical Context

This engraving, created around 1597 by Jan Muller after a design by Bartholomeus Spranger, captures the playful spirit of late Renaissance mythology. The Latin title, translating to “Without Ceres and Bac Venus Grows Cold,” draws on an ancient proverb suggesting that love requires nourishment and wine to thrive. Spranger, a leading Flemish artist at the court of Emperor Rudolf II in Prague, infused the composition with the elegant distortions and sensual figures characteristic of Northern Mannerism, while Muller translated these qualities into the precise lines of engraving. As a reproductive print issued in multiple states, the work helped spread Spranger’s sophisticated imagery across Europe. The medium allowed intricate details—flowing drapery, muscular forms, and symbolic still-life elements representing grain and grapes—to reach a wide audience beyond painted originals. Today in the Metropolitan Museum’s collection, the engraving stands as a vivid reminder of how classical themes were reimagined in the late sixteenth century to explore human desires through refined technique and witty allegory.

About the Artist

Jan Muller|Bartholomeus Spranger · 1571–1628

**Jan Harmensz. Muller (1571–1628)** Born in Amsterdam in 1571, Jan Harmensz. Muller grew up immersed in the world of printmaking, as the son of the prominent engraver, publisher, and book printer Harmen Jansz. Muller. He studied under his father, mastering the engraving trade within the family business, The Gilded Compasses. Around 1589, Muller joined the workshop of Hendrick Goltzius in Haarlem...