Cleveland Museum of Art

Aeneas and His Family Fleeing Troy

Agostino Carracci

Date

1595

Medium

engraving

Culture

Italy, 16th century

Department

Prints

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Created at the end of the 1500s, this print stylistically marks the end of Renaissance art. Barocci’s swirling, emotional composition and the intensity of Agostino’s engraved network of lines prefigure the rise of Baroque art in the 1600s. However, ancient legends such as the Trojan War, revived and popularized during the Renaissance, continued to inspire artists for centuries to come. Here, Aeneas carries his elderly father Anchises, who in turn rescues small statues of their household gods while the city of Troy burns. Both acts stress the men’s virtuous dedication to home and family. Aeneas’s young son Ascanius and his wife Creusa flee with them, but Creusa’s separation from the group alludes to her fate: she falls behind and is lost as the Greeks invade the city.

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