Arethusa wordt achtervolgd door Alpheüs 1606

Antonio Tempesta created this small etching, "Arethusa wordt achtervolgd door Alpheüs," in the late 16th or early 17th century. It depicts a scene from classical mythology: the nymph Arethusa fleeing the river god Alpheus. Tempesta was working in a time when the imagery of classical myth was still vitally important to European culture. Gods and goddesses served as figures for stories about lust, power, and desire. But it also comes at the beginning of the Baroque period, when we see a new interest in movement and drama. The composition is filled with dynamic energy, but it also reflects the violence inherent in stories of male gods pursuing female nymphs. To understand this work fully, we might turn to texts of classical mythology, like Ovid's "Metamorphoses", and look at the prints and illustrated books that circulated these stories in early modern Europe. Ultimately, Tempesta's print reminds us that art is always entangled with the social and intellectual currents of its time.