Skip to main content

Hippolitus: P.14994-R

Object information

Current Location: In storage

Titles

Hippolitus
Death of Hippolytus

Maker(s)

Printmaker: Earlom, Richard
Publisher: Evans, Benjamin Beale
Painter: Rubens, Peter Paul (After)

Entities

Categories

Description

After the oil painting on copper by Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), (1611-c.1613; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, PD.8-1979). The finished state of Earlom's print references Ovid's telling of the story, 'The Transformation of Hippolytus' with the inscription: "Vide Ovid Metamorphoses, Book the 15th". In Ovid, Hippolytus recounts what happened to him as he was driving his chariot along the seashore having been banished by his father, Theseus who falsely believed him to have raped his step-mother, Phaedra. To avenge his wife, Theseus had banished his son and asked his father, Poseidon to curse him. Poseidon sent a monster to frighten Hippolytus' horses so that he could no longer control them and was dragged to his death. The scene shows Hippolytus thrown from his chariot onto a beach, his horses rearing up before the bull/fish monster. Triton blows his conch shell at far left and two figures flee to the right.

Legal notes

Bequeathed by the Rev. R. E. Kerrich, 1872 (received 1873)

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1873) by Kerrich, Richard Edward

Dating

18th Century#
1796 - 1797-01-07 1797

Note

Mezzotint with etching and stipple, printed in black ink. Scratched letter proof with thread margins, before the dedication to the Duke of Bedford (the previous owner of the Rubens painting) was added (See BM 1873,0809.172). Lettered below image at lower left: 'P.P Rubens Pinx.t' and at lower right: 'R.d Earlom Sculp 1796 fe'. Publication details scratched below the image at the centre: 'Pub.d Jan.y 7th 1797, by B.B. Evans in the Poultry, London'. The title engraved in open roman letters below: 'HIPPOLITUS'. Inscribed in graphite in the margin at lower right: '?5-3 / Kerrich'. Inscribed in graphite in large script on the verso: '405'.

School or Style

British

Techniques used in production

Mezzotint
Stipple
Etching

Identification numbers

Accession number: P.14994-R
Primary reference Number: 240041
Wessely (Earlom): 82
Lugt: L.1568
Chaloner Smith: undescribed
Voorhelm Schneevoogt: 130.99
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Thursday 9 January 2020 Updated: Wednesday 11 January 2023 Last processed: Thursday 7 December 2023

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Paintings, Drawings and Prints

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Hippolitus" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/240041 Accessed: 2024-11-25 07:10:04

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:

{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/240041 |title=Hippolitus |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-25 07:10:04|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/objects/object-240041

Sign up for updates

Updates about future exhibitions and displays, family activities, virtual events & news. You'll be the first to know...