Fall of the Giants, Jupiter in the clouds overhead striking the Giants with lightning

Girolamo Fagiuoli|Perino del Vaga (Pietro Buonaccorsi)

ca. 1539–49 · Engraving · Drawings and Prints

In the mid-sixteenth century, the story of Jupiter overcoming the Giants' uprising was often associated with the victories of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (r. 1519–56) over the Protestant rebellion. Such was the case with the vault painted in about 1533 by Perino del Vaga (Pietro Buonaccorsi) in a chamber that served as a temporary throne room for the emperor in Andrea Doria's Genoese palace. This engraving records one of the preliminary drawings for the fresco. Perino follows Ovid's account in showing Jupiter fighting the Giants without help from the other Olympians, yet includes the boulders and uprooted trees mentioned by Apollodorus (Library 1.6) as weapons of the Giants.

Artist

Girolamo Fagiuoli|Perino del Vaga (Pietro Buonaccorsi)

Date

ca. 1539–49

Medium

Engraving

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1949