Cephalus and Procris in two Niches

1538–1540

after Rosso Fiorentino

(Italian, 1494–1540)

Culture

France, 16th century

Medium

engraving

Support

Blued white laid paper

Measurements

Sheet: 20.7 x 26.6 cm (8 1/8 x 10 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

John L. Severance Fund 1991.96

Catalogue raisonné

Robert-Dumesnil 69 (VIII.46)

You can copy, modify, and distribute this work, all without asking permission. Learn more about CMA's Open Access Initiative.

Location

Not on view

Description

The Italian Renaissance made an impact outside Italy in the second quarter of the 1500s, when the French king François I invited Italian artists to oversee the decorative program of his chateau at Fontainebleau. Arriving in 1530, Rosso Fiorentino had been deeply influenced by Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling frescoes, which he had seen while working in Rome between 1524 and 1527. Rosso’s designs for two figures in niches (which were engraved by René Boyvin) imitate the complexity and tension of Michelangelo’s nudes. In this story from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Cephalus has accidentally impaled his wife Procris, who had been spying on him from the bushes.