Mercury Delivers the Infant Bacchus to the Nymphs

Mercury Delivers the Infant Bacchus to the Nymphs

Bénigne Gagneraux

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This rare and impressive print characteristic of Gagneraux's elegant neoclassical style. Trained in Dijon, he won the prix-de-Rome and left in 1779 for Italy, where he would spend the remainder of his career. His contemporaries in Rome included Mengs, Sergel, Fuseli, Canova, and David. While line engravings would be popularized by Flaxman and others, Gagneraux was among the first to adopt this manner of printmaking. This impression is a proof impression, with drawing in graphite indicating where the artist intended to further work the plate.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Mercury Delivers the Infant Bacchus to the NymphsMercury Delivers the Infant Bacchus to the NymphsMercury Delivers the Infant Bacchus to the NymphsMercury Delivers the Infant Bacchus to the NymphsMercury Delivers the Infant Bacchus to the Nymphs

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.