Zeus as an eagle, abducting Ganymede

Giovanni Battista Palumba

1500–1510 · Woodcut (appears to be a later impression) · Drawings and Prints

Among Jupiter's many loves was the boy Ganymede, whom the god, in the guise of an eagle, carried off to Olympus to serve as his cupbearer. Palumba's woodcut follows Virgil's description (Aeneid 5.250–57) of a cloak embroidered with a depiction of the Trojan prince's abduction while hunting on Mount Ida. As Virgil writes, as the beautiful youth is born aloft in the eagle's talons, his guardians stretch their hands in vain to Heaven and the barking of his dogs rises to the skies.

Artist

Giovanni Battista Palumba

Date

1500–1510

Medium

Woodcut (appears to be a later impression)

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1925