Collection Online as of December 1, 2023
Hercules Driving Envy from the Temple of the Muses
Chiaroscuro woodcut (in black and gray)
Support: Beige(1) laid paper
Sheet: 29.5 x 22.5 cm (11 5/8 x 8 7/8 in.)
Gift of Ralph King 1925.443
Catalogue raisonné: Bartsch 12 (XII.133)
State: ii/ii
Location
not on view
Description
The term chiaroscuro combines the Italian words chiaro (light) and scuro (dark). Invented to emulate drawings with light and dark pigments on tinted paper, the printing technique uses multiple woodblocks to layer different tones of color. Here, Ugo da Carpi—the progenitor of the chiaroscuro woodcut in Italy—used two blocks in black and gray on a beige paper.
In this allegory, not linked to a particular myth, Hercules applies his brute force in the service of art and knowledge. Pointing toward the archway, Apollo banishes the vice of Avarice from the Temple of the Muses. A personification of greed, Avarice carries a hoard of treasure in her arms as Hercules, a character of virtuous strength, chases her out. Apollo sits next to the war goddess Athena, identified by her helmet, shield, and spear. Here she represents wisdom, and fulfills a civilizing role as patroness of the arts.
Ugo da Carpi
Born in Carpi (modern-day province of Modena) in ca. 1468/70, Ugo da Carpi was the first Italian chiaroscuro woodcut designer. Active in Venice from around 1509, he produced several woodcuts from small book illustrations to monumental multi-block prints. Concerned with issues relating to authenticity, Ugo usually signed his works, an uncommon practice at that time. In 1516, he petitioned the Venetian Senate for the privilege of having invented the technique of chiaroscuro woodcut. however, it is likely that Ugo developed his method upon seeing earlier German examples. In his prints, Ugo abandoned the traditional cross-hatching manner in favor of the use of tone blocks. In 1516-18, Ugo moved to Rome and executed the majority of his chiaroscuro woodcuts after designs by Raphael and through the intermediary of engravings by Marcantonio Raimondi and Agostino Veneziano. After the sack of Rome in 1527, Ugo settled in Bologna where he collaborated with Parmigianino, before dying in 1532.
Balthasar Peruzzi
Baldassarre Peruzzi (1481-1536) was a painter, architect, and a prolific draftsman from Siena. He worked in Rome in contact with Raphael's circle from 1503 until the sack of the city in 1527.