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Cephalus and Procris in two Niches

1538–1540
(French, c. 1525–after 1580)
(Italian, 1494–1540)
France, 16th century
engraving
Support: Blued white laid paper
Sheet: 20.7 x 26.6 cm (8 1/8 x 10 1/2 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1991.96
Catalogue raisonné: Robert-Dumesnil 69 (VIII.46)
Location: not on view
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Description

The Italian Renaissance made an impact outside Italy in the second quarter of the 1500s, when the French king François I invited Italian artists to oversee the decorative program of his chateau at Fontainebleau. Arriving in 1530, Rosso Fiorentino had been deeply influenced by Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling frescoes, which he had seen while working in Rome between 1524 and 1527. Rosso’s designs for two figures in niches (which were engraved by René Boyvin) imitate the complexity and tension of Michelangelo’s nudes. In this story from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Cephalus has accidentally impaled his wife Procris, who had been spying on him from the bushes.
Cephalus and Procris in two Niches

Cephalus and Procris in two Niches

1538–1540

René Boyvin, Rosso Fiorentino

(French, c. 1525–after 1580), (Italian, 1494–1540)
France, 16th century

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