Art Institute of Chicago

Andromeda

Jan Saenredam (Dutch, 1565-1607)

Date

1601 (printed 1650s)

Medium

Engraving on cream laid paper

Culture

Netherlands

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

This engraving by Jan Saenredam after a drawing by Hendrick Goltzius envisions the story of Andromeda as a traditional Renaissance nude. The beautifully bare princess Andromeda has been chained to a bone-strewn rock as food for a ravening sea beast, when Perseus swoops in on Pegasus to do battle with the creature and save the damsel in distress. Andromeda’s nudity is accentuated by her flowing locks, blown dramatically by the wind and waves; she is a comely tidbit for monster or man. Saenredam’s early training was in cartography, and his rendition of Goltzius’s sea beast resembles the hybrid stock characters that populate dangerous uncharted waters of 16th-century maps.

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