Prometheus Bound
Late 18th C. Print

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Prometheus
Prometheus Prometheus Prometheus
[Prometheus Bound]
Probably British: Late 18th Century
Stipple engraving
10 x 14 inches, plate mark
21.75 x 15 inches, overall
Sold, please inquire as to the availability of similar items.

Print after an old master drawing depicting the mythological subject of “Prometheus Bound” as a predatory eagle looming over him, a popular image in Renaissance and Baroque art.  As an additional ominous touch, the gnarled tree trunk beyond the rock takes the shape of the head of a monster with a gaping mouth.  Prints after Renaissance and Baroque drawings and paintings, were popular in late 18th and early 19th century London, and were issued by publishers such as John and Josiah Boydell, and Charles Rogers.  Such publishers often published these prints individually, or as parts of books of old master works.  This work of Prometheus is presumed to have been so published.

In Greek mythology, Prometheus, the son of a Titan, foretells the doom of Zeus.  When he refuses to share the secret of his prophecy, Zeus punishes him by chaining him to a rock in the mountains where an eagle visits him every day for thirty years to gnaw at his liver.  At the end of this period, Hercules slays the bird, ending the torment of Prometheus. 

References:

“Introduction.”  The Hunterian Art Gallery: Connoisseurs, Collectors and Copyists. http://www.hunterian.gla.ac.uk/Archives/CCCexhib/exhibition.htm (27 July 2005).

“John Boydell and Prints in Imitation of Drawings from the Royal Collection.”  The Hunterian Art Gallery: Connoisseurs, Collectors and Copyists.  http://www.hunterian.gla.ac.uk/Archives/CCCexhib/introboyd.htm (27 July 2005).