Description:
Woman drinks from a jar while a child and an old woman watch; exterior of house; trees and vegetation; Mythology-Roman
Label Text:
The Classical story depicted here (Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Book 5) reflects the myth of the Earth goddess Ceres/Demeter whose daughter Persephone was abducted by Pluto/Hades to become his queen in the underworld. When Ceres learned that Persephone had gone missing, she searched everywhere for traces of her daughter’s disappearance. As she wandered the earth, she came to a small cottage and asked for a drink of water. An old woman appeared at the doorway, offering the goddess a sweet brew, garnished with toasted barley. Ceres drank readily, when a little boy appeared and seeing a strange woman at the cottage door, mocked her for drinking so greedily. Incensed at this uncalled-for insult, the goddess tossed her drink at the boy. Suddenly, his cheeks were covered with colored spots. His arms became another pair of legs, his body shrank, and grew a stubby little tail - he had turned into a tiny lizard. The old woman cried out while the little lizard scampered away into a crevice in the stones. There it hides still, known by the shape of its blotches as the star-spotted lizard.
This engraving created in Rome was dedicated to the Cardinale Scipone Borghese, an avid collector of Northern European artists. It is evident that it became quite popular in its time since many copies of the print were made and because we know that major contemporary artists like Rubens and Gerard Dou personally owned copies of the print. Like Van de Velde, Goudt used tenebrism (the use of light and dark issuing from centralized sources of light) to create a mysterious atmosphere. This was the second of the only seven prints engraved by Hendrik Goudt. All these prints were copies after paintings by the German artist Adam Elsheimer who housed Goudt while he was living in Rome. Since the story of The mocking of Ceres was never specifically defined as a night scene, the choice to turn it into one created a way for Elsheimer, who must have been influenced by Caravaggio, to implement all these wonderful tenebristic effects, making the scene more ominous and mysterious. The encroaching vines that envelop the torch lit scene make it very intimate if not almost claustrophobic. Nature’s thus Ceres power seems further emphasized by the diagonal composition in the center of the print, starting with the broken branch looming over Ceres all the way to the little boys tilted head.
There are speculations that Goudt might have been Elsheimers student in Rome, however their personal relationship seemed to have been of an odd nature. Goudt was of Dutch nobility and therefore quite well off, Elsheimer in contrast seemed to have been quite destitute, so destitute that he actually ended up in debtor’s prison in Rome. According to some sources this imprisonment was due to debts he owned to his “friend” Goudt who was also his patron. The two artists supposedly reconciled before Elsheimer died in 1610 and in 1611 Goudt left Rome for Utrecht with most of Elsheimers paintings. Goudt did not produce many engravings however he joined the artists guild describing himself as “nobleman and engraver”. His lack of productivity might have been due to his declining mental state since documented references from the 1625 and 1626, call him actually feeble minded or simple
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+1955.33 |
