The Farnese Herculesc. 1577
Giorgio Ghisi made this in about 1577, aged about 52. It is now at the Art Institute of Chicago. More about this work
About this work
A work made of engraving in black on cream laid paper.
Description from the Art Institute of Chicago.
Giorgio Ghisi made this in about 1577, aged about 52. It is now at the Art Institute of Chicago.
How it was made
- Engraving
- Lines cut directly into a metal plate with a steel burin, which makes them swell and taper. It took years to master, and for centuries it was how paintings travelled as pictures.
- Laid paper
- Handmade on a mould of close-set wires, which leave fine parallel lines you can see when the sheet is held to the light.
Giorgio Ghisi
Italian, 1520–1582
Ghisi was a Mantuan engraver who worked in Antwerp for the publisher Hieronymus Cock, engraving large plates after Raphael’s Vatican frescoes, and later in France. His refined, silvery technique, built from fine, regular lines and flicks, carried Italian compositions to collectors across Europe. In his later years he returned to Mantua, where he served the Gonzaga court.
Written by Ochre Editions.
Renaissance
European art from about 1400 to 1600, when painters rediscovered perspective and the classical past.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The Art Institute of Chicago has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 2022.150
- Credit
- Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
- Type
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
