Combats and Triumphs

Etienne Delaune (French, 1518/19-1583)

Combats and Triumphs, probably 1560s
Engravings

Gift of Leonard C. Hanna 1924.671-.674

The Triumph of Bacchus
Battle of Men and Animals
Combat of the Naked Men
Battle of the Centaurs and the Lapiths

The four prints shown here come from a series of twelve known as the
Combats and Triumphs. The friezelike composition reflects the artist's
study of marble relief carvings on Greek and Roman sarcophagi (coffins),
here reduced to a preciously small setting. Against a flat, stagelike
background, Delaune's balletic warriors engage in a Mannerist version of
artificial war.

Etienne Delaune was inspired by the art created at Fontainebleau, but he
worked in Paris and then Strasbourg during the late 1500s. His small,
exquisitely executed engravings reflect his training as a goldsmith and his
work as a medallist.