Tityus
Michelangelo Buonarroti (Italy 1475-1564) (after), by Nicolas Beatrizet, France and Italy (1507-1565). Tityus. Signed MICH A.B. INVENT in the plate. Engraving on laid paper, with an anchor or fleur-de-lys in a circle watermark, S. 28.6×37.1 cm.
Bartsch 39, an early impression with the guidelines for the text in the lower margin and the vertical wiping marks distinct, as published by Salamanca. Circa 1540-1566.This engraving is based on Michelangelo’s drawing of the same subject in the Royal Collection, Windsor (Inventory number RCIN 912771).
PROVENANCE
Josef Viktor Kuderna (Austria 1886-1952), with the ink stamp verso (Lugt 1626a); The collection of Engineer and Major Frank Bensow (1883-1969), with the ink stamp verso (Lugt 982c).
In a myth recounted in Ovids Metamorphoses, the giant Tityus was punished for attempting to rape Lato, mother of Apollo and Diana, by being chained to a rock in Hades. Every day a vulture would rip out his liver, the seat of lust; every night the liver would grow back, for the torment to be repeated the next day, for all eternity.