Geronima Cagnaccia Parasole (Italian, c. 1569-1622)
after Antonio Tempesta (Italian, 1555-1630)
Battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs
INV-1532
Geronima Cagnaccia Parasole (Italian, c. 1569-1622)
after Antonio Tempesta (Italian, 1555-1630)c. 1600
Battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs
Geronima Cagnaccia Parasole (Italian, c. 1569-1622) after Antonio Tempesta (Italian, 1555-1630) →woodcutprint
Date
c. 1600
Medium
Woodcut on cream laid paper
Dimensions
41.5 × 67.2 cm (16 3/8 × 26 1/2 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
The Amanda S. Johnson and Marion J. Livingston Fund
According to ancient myth, a fierce battle broke out between the Lapiths, legendary natives of Thessaly in Greece, and the half-human and half-horse Centaurs. Geronima Cagnaccia Parasole, a woman printmaker widely admired in Rome for her skill in woodcutting, based this print on a drawing by Antonio Tempesta, a prolific artist well known at the time for his images of horses in dynamic poses. With its large scale, complex composition, and rich detail, this was Parasole’s most ambitious and accomplished work.