Fall of the Giants

Salvator Rosa - engraver

Salvator Rosa - engraver - Fall of the Giants
Donated by Vojtěch Lanna in 1885. Salvator Rosa, an Italian painter, graphic artist and poet, is seen as a proto-Romanticist for his unconventional life and work. His impressive composition capturing the fall of the Giants and their death in an avalanche of rocks was probably inspired by the 1530s fresco Fall of the Giants in Palazzo del Te in Mantova, Italy, by Giulio Romano. A number of Rosa’s preparatory drawings for this engraving have survived. Although his signature reads „inv. pinx. scul.“ („designed, painted and engraved by“), no painting by him with this theme is known. Rosa was undoubtedly fascinated by the theme of the rebellion against the Olympian gods. The myth is described in Ovid's Metamorphoses. The Giants, children of the goddess Gaia and Uranus, did not recognize the rule of the Olympian gods. They heaped the mountains one on top of another and tried to conquer Mount Olympus. Although they wielded great force, the Olympian gods vanquished them with the help of Heracles. Rosa expressively captured the shock, pain and desperation of the lost battle in the Giants’ faces.
date:
measurements: height 718 mm
width 466 mm
material: paper
technique: Etching and dry point
inscription:
inventory number: R 1040
gallery collection: Collection of Prints and Drawings