Art Institute of Chicago

The Fall of Troy and the Escape of Aeneas

Giorgio Ghisi (Italian, 1520-1582)

Date

1540/50

Medium

Engraving in black on ivory laid paper

Culture

Italy

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

The itinerant Italian Renaissance engraver Giorgio Ghisi excelled at historical, religious, and mythological scenes. This magnificent engraving boasts heightened details and sculptural modeling recalling an ancient bas-relief frieze. Mounted on powerful horses, the invading Greek force storms into the burning city on the left. On the right, Aeneas scales the walls to escape with his elderly father and young son while his mother, Venus, protects him from a hovering cloud. As described in Virgil’s poem the Aeneid, after the Trojan War Aeneas follows a winding, perilous course, similar to that of Odysseus in Homer’s the Odyssey, before eventually making his way to a new home, Rome.

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