Mezzotint by John SIMON (c.1675-1751) after Guido RENI (1575-1642)
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About this item
John Simon (Anglo-French c.1675-1751)
“Perseus delivers Andromeda from ye Sea Monster"
After Guido Reni (Italian 1575-1642)
Mezzotint
38.5 cm x 27.4 cm
Lettered below the image within the plate with the title and 'Guido Pinx. // I. Simon fec.'
Provenance:
Private Collection UK
Andromeda chained to the rock, throwing out her arms in horror at the sight of the sea monster which emerges from the sea in the right foreground, while Perseus flies down on the winged horse Pegasus, to kill it. An extremely rare print dating to around the 1720s. Wide margins, printed on laid paper with fleur-de-lis and crest watermark.
Jean Simon (anglicized to John) was born in Normandy and trained in Paris as a line engraver. As a Huguenot, he fled to England in around 1700 where became a mezzotinter. Here he has engraved an image derived from a 17th Century painting of the myth of Perseus and Andromeda by Guido Reni (Pallavicini Collection, Rome).
The tale appears in Book IV of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Andromeda was the daughter of Queen Cassiopeia of Ethiopia. Her mother boasted that her daughter was more beautiful than the sea nymphs, which attracted the ire of Poseidon and, for him to be placated, required the sacrifice of Andromeda, who was abandoned chained to a rock to be devoured by a sea monster. Before she met this fate she was saved by Perseus, who slayed the monster and rescued her on board his winged horse Pegasus.
A fine and richly inked impression of this very rare print. The British Museum only holds a poor, thinly pressed copy [see BM 2010,7081.3441]
Additional Information
10158 (AB-59612)
W: 27.4cm (10.8")H: 38.5cm (15.2")
18th Century, Georgian (1714 to 1837)
Oxfordshire, United Kingdom