Skip to Main Content

The Power of Women: The Poet Virgil Suspended in a Basket

c. 1512
(Dutch, 1494–1533)
Netherlands, 16th century
woodcut
Gift of the Print Club of Cleveland in memory of Charles T. Brooks 1935.116
Catalogue raisonné: Hollstein 89
State: I/II
Location: not on view
Public Domain
You can copy, modify, and distribute this work, all without asking permission. Learn more about CMA's Open Access Initiative.

Download, Print and Share

Description

This woodcut is from a series depicting the power of women, a popular early 16th-century theme. The series highlights a woman’s capacity to use beauty, charm, and ruse to thwart even the cleverest men. Here, Van Leyden illustrated the cunning of the Roman emperor’s daughter. According to legend, the poet Virgil fell in love with the maiden, but she objected and punished him for his impudence. After promising to raise Virgil to her bedroom window in a basket, she left him hanging halfway. The printmaker omitted the emperor’s daughter from the scene but added the woman advising her son against such folly.
The Power of Women: The Poet Virgil Suspended in a Basket

The Power of Women: The Poet Virgil Suspended in a Basket

c. 1512

Lucas van Leyden

(Dutch, 1494–1533)
Netherlands, 16th century

See Also

Visually Similar by AI

    Contact us

    The information about this object, including provenance, may not be currently accurate. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about this object, please email collectionsdata@clevelandart.org.

    To request more information about this object, study images, or bibliography, contact the Ingalls Library Reference Desk.

    All images and data available through Open Access can be downloaded for free. For images not available through Open Access, a detail image, or any image with a color bar, request a digital file from Image Services.