The Fall of the Giants (1663): Artwork and History

The Fall of the Giants (1663) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Salvator Rosa Italian, 1615-1673.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

Just as the Giants—Gaia’s offspring—attempt to storm the throne of the Olympian gods, Jupiter brings them crashing down with a thunderbolt. He can be seen at the top in the clouds. Salvator Rosa executed this colossal composition at the pinnacle of his etching career, and dedicated it to the Florentine poet Horatio Quaranta. Rosa’s pessimistic admonition appears at the bottom of the sheet: “They are raised up high that they may be hurled down in more terrible ruin.” Multitalented with boundless energy, Rosa was also a poet, actor, musician, and painter. He made this print to promote his ideas for a painting of the same subject in hopes that a patron would sponsor its execution.

Object facts

• Title: The Fall of the Giants
• Date: 1663
• Artist attribution: Salvator Rosa Italian, 1615-1673
• Place of origin: Italy
• Medium: Etching with drypoint in black on ivory laid paper
• Dimensions: 72.8 × 47.4 cm (28 11/16 × 18 11/16 in.)
• Type: Print
• Department: Prints and Drawings
• Reference number: 1887.249

Collection credit

Elizabeth Hammond Stickney Collection

View the original

Explore the artwork in the Art Institute's collection, including its image and the museum's current catalogue details.

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.