Amorini Celebrate the Rape of Proserpine

Francesco Rosaspina|Francesco Albani

1805–12 · Engraving and etching, incomplete proof impression · Drawings and Prints

Rosaspina believed that he could translate the color and style of a painting only if the work was in front of him as he engraved, which is one reason it took him so long to complete this, his most famous print. Because there were long intervals between his visits to Milan, where Albani's painting was located, several proofs in different stages of completion survive. Albani's famous painting of dancing cupids, now in the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, is based on Ovid's account of Proserpina's ravishment by Pluto (the Greek Hades). See 45.78.123 for the finished state.

Artist

Francesco Rosaspina|Francesco Albani

Date

1805–12

Medium

Engraving and etching, incomplete proof impression

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Junius S. Morgan, 1923