Andromeda (1601 (printed 1650s)): Artwork and History

Andromeda (1601 (printed 1650s)) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Jan Saenredam (Dutch, 1565-1607) after Hendrick Goltzius (Dutch, 1558-1617) published by Frederick de Wit (Dutch, c. 1629-1706).

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

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.

Object facts

• Title: Andromeda
• Date: 1601 (printed 1650s)
• Artist attribution: Jan Saenredam (Dutch, 1565-1607) after Hendrick Goltzius (Dutch, 1558-1617) published by Frederick de Wit (Dutch, c. 1629-1706)
• Place of origin: Netherlands
• Medium: Engraving on cream laid paper
• Dimensions: 25.5 × 17.5 cm (10 1/16 × 6 15/16 in.)
• Type: Print
• Department: Prints and Drawings
• Reference number: 1887.311

Collection credit

Elizabeth Hammond Stickney Collection

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The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.