The Fall of Troy and the Escape of Aeneas
1540/50
Medium
Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image/plate: 38.3 × 49.6 cm (15 1/8 × 19 9/16 in.); Sheet: 38.8 × 50 cm (15 5/16 × 19 11/16 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
221702
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
The itinerant Italian Renaissance engraver Giorgio Ghisi excelled at historical, religious, and mythological scenes. This magnificent engraving boasts heightened details and sculptural modeling recalling an ancient bas-relief frieze. Mounted on powerful horses, the invading Greek force storms into the burning city on the left. On the right, Aeneas scales the walls to escape with his elderly father and young son while his mother, Venus, protects him from a hovering cloud. As described in Virgil’s...
About the Artist
Giorgio Ghisi · 1520–1582
Giorgio Ghisi (c. 1520–1582) was one of the most accomplished engravers of the Italian Renaissance, renowned for translating the monumental compositions of Raphael, Giulio Romano, and Michelangelo into the exacting medium of the burin. Born in Mantua, he trained in an environment shaped by the legacy of Giulio Romano's decoration of the Palazzo del Te, and the grandeur of that Mannerist tradition ...