A dramatic battle scene of Roman soldiers on horses set in classical time.
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

Roman soldiers on horses are battling others on the ground with spears and swords, striking down the people all round them. In the center is a partially clad soldier with bare chest holding up the body of a limp nude woman from the waist. The woman’s arms hang limp over her head. The soldier, in three quarter pose, looks over his right should to the left at the dramatic scene behind him. One person has fallen under a horse on the left.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
2007.42
People
Diana Scultori, Italian (c. 1547 - 1612)
After Giulio Romano, Italian (Rome 1499? - 1546 Mantua)
Title
The Body of Patroclus Borne from the Battlefield
Classification
Prints
Work Type
print
Date
16th century
Culture
Italian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/316188

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Engraving on cream antique laid paper
Technique
Engraving
Dimensions
Image: 23.8 × 38.7 cm (9 3/8 × 15 1/4 in.)
Plate: 24.2 × 39.6 cm (9 1/2 × 15 9/16 in.)
Sheet: 25 × 40.2 cm (9 13/16 × 15 13/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: l.l. Iulius Rom. In. Achilles defuctus.
  • inscription: l.c., in graphite on matting: Diana Ghisi

    The body of Patrocles borne from the battlefield.
    B. 35

    "Cette estampe est une des plus belles
    qu'ait grave Diane Ghisi"- Bartsch

    Engraving after Giulio Romano. The two inscriptions on the left, not mentioned by Bartsch, appear also in a superb early impression in the British Museum.
    £118
  • inscription: on plate l.l.: Iulius Rom. In.
    Achilles defucties.

State, Edition, Standard Reference Number

State
iii/iii
Standard Reference Number
Bartsch 35; Bellini 14

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of William S. Lieberman
Accession Year
2007
Object Number
2007.42
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Commentary
The Mantuan printmakers Giovanni Battista Scultori and his daughter, Diana Scultori (also known erroneously as Diana Ghisi), were both described in Vasari's Lives in 1568. She was of the first women printmakers to sign the majority of her works; indeed Vasari included very few other female artists of any kind. Giovanni Battista taught Diana and her brother Adamo to engrave, and both went on to print careers in Rome. The two Lieberman works from this artist family are both copied after Giulio Romano, the court painter at Mantua. They depict scenes from the Trojan War in a relief-like style that shows the painter's interest in antique sculpture, particularly the friezes from sarcophagi. Giovanni Battista shows an unspecified battle held simultaneously on land and sea; as the Trojans push the Greeks back into the water, the allegorical figureheads of the ships blend into literal sea-horses. The level of armorial detail is so high that it is difficult to ascertain which side is which. In contrast, Diana's engraving highlights a pause in the Greek-on-Roman action. Achilles' close friend Patrols has borrowed that celebrated fighter's armor to rout the encroaching Trojan army. Having pushed them too far, he is killed for his hubris by Apollo. In the quiet center of the composition, he falls soft and naked over the knee of his mourning companion.

Exhibition History

  • 32Q: 2540 Renaissance, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/04/2021 - 03/21/2022

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu