- Museum number
- 1834,0804.200-205
- Title
- Series: Histoire d'Apollon et de Diane
- Description
-
Six scenes from the story of Apollo and Diana: Latona turning the people from Lycia into frogs; Apollo slaying Python; Orion joining Diana's hunting party; Britomartis escaping King Minos by throwing herself into fishermen' nets; Apollo killing Orion; and Diana mourning the loss of Orion
Engraving
- Production date
- 1547-1572
- Dimensions
-
Height: 80 millimetres (average; trimmed)
-
Width: 107 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- A complete set of six, engraved by Delaune before his departure for Strasburg (1572/73) as proven by the copyright line.
The prints have been linked to a series of tapestries executed for the chateau of Anet c.1550. Some preparatory drawings for the tapestries survive (Diana greeting Orion, Musée des Beaux Arts de Rennes, inv.41-1; The Death of Orion, Louvre inv. 8741; Diana Mourning Orion, Louvre inv. 8742). The drawings have traditionally been attributed to Luca Penni, however the attribution of the sheets to the Italian artist is now debated, and the Louvre drawings are catalogued as School of Primaticcio/School of Fontainebleau, with possible attributions to Luca Penni, Jean Cousin, Charles Carmoy, and Primaticcio.
In his catalogue raisonné of Delaune's works, Christophe Pollet ("Les gravures d'Etienne Delaune (1518-1583)", Presses Universitaires Septentrion, 2001, vol. I, cat. No.11-16, pp.197-210) notes that several scholars (Lucile Golson 'Lucca Penni a Pupil of Raphaël at the Court of Fontainebleau', in Gazette des Beaux-Arts (1957), II, p. 31; and Françoise Bardon, 'Diane de Poitiers et le mythe de Diane', Paris, 1963) have suggested the possibility of the prints being created before the Anet tapestries (which would have drawn inspiration from both drawings and prints), which would bring the execution of the prints around 1547/48, according to Bardon.
Also see 'Fontainebleau et l'estampe en France au XVIe siècle, iconographie et contradictions', Nemours 1985, cat. No.29 and 187.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1834
- Acquisition notes
- The varied and important prints inventoried as 1834,0804.1 to 356 were all purchased by Ottley in the third part of the Stowe sale, beginning on 14 July 1834. He bought 50 lots which cost the BM a total of £93 4s. His purchases were also listed in the 1837 inventory under the numbers Kk,7.1 to 277 and Kk,8.1 to 78. The order of the inventory listing does not follow that of the 1834,0804 register. The records have been edited to make the 1834,0804 number the prime number, and the Kk,7 The group of French and Italian prints purchased by Ottley at the Stowe sale and registered as 1834,0804.1 to 356 were all sold on the 19th, 20th and 30th days of the sale, 14th, 15th and 26th July 1834 (the lots were consecutively numbered). The total price paid was £93 4s. They seem to have been bought by Ottley himself bidding at the sale. 8 numbers have been recorded as additional numbers. (AVG 2019)
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1834,0804.200-205
- Additional IDs
-
Other BM number: Kk,7.166 to 171
