Salvator Rosa
The fall of the Giants

Artwork Detail
Ovid’s Metamorphoses describes how the Giants piled rocks one upon the other in an attempt to reach and conquer the stars. To repel them Zeus hurled his thunderbolts, so that the rocks cascaded back to earth, crushing the Giants beneath them.
Although the most famous interpretation of the theme was the entire room frescoed by Guilio Romano at Palazzo del Te, Mantua, Coriolano’s woodcut after Guido Reni’s Fall of the Giants was a more important pictorial source for Rosa (Wallace, 1973).
- Title
- The fall of the Giants
- Artist/creator
- Production date
- 1663
- Medium
- etching
- Dimensions
- 733 x 478 mm
- Credit line
- Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Peter Tomory Collection, purchased 2004
- Accession no
- 2004/30/101
- Copyright
- No known copyright restrictions
- Department
- International Art
- Display status
- Not on display
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