Art Institute of Chicago

Battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs

Geronima Cagnaccia Parasole (Italian, c. 1569-1622)

Date

c. 1600

Medium

Woodcut on cream laid paper

Culture

Italy

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

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.

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