The Rape of Ganymede by Jupiter in the guise of an eagle carrying him into the heavens, his dog barking below

The Rape of Ganymede by Jupiter in the guise of an eagle carrying him into the heavens, his dog barking below

Nicolas Beatrizet

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Between 1532 and 1533 Michelangelo created a number of highly finished mythological drawings for the young nobleman Tommaso de’ Cavalieri as tokens of his friendship. These chalk drawings acquired great fame and immediately after their execution became highly coveted objects among collectors. Representing Zeus in the form of an eagle abducting the beautiful shepherd, Michelangelo’s Rape of Ganymede was copied by engravers. Silvia Bianchi considers this plate to be by Nicolas Beatrizet and thinks it is the original version. The is the first state of the engraving, the second of which had Lafreri's address in the lower right corner. The print is not catalogued in the standard print references (Bartsch, Robert-Dumesnil etc).

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Rape of Ganymede by Jupiter in the guise of an eagle carrying him into the heavens, his dog barking belowThe Rape of Ganymede by Jupiter in the guise of an eagle carrying him into the heavens, his dog barking belowThe Rape of Ganymede by Jupiter in the guise of an eagle carrying him into the heavens, his dog barking belowThe Rape of Ganymede by Jupiter in the guise of an eagle carrying him into the heavens, his dog barking belowThe Rape of Ganymede by Jupiter in the guise of an eagle carrying him into the heavens, his dog barking below

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.