Male Centaur with thyrsus rod, Youth and lyre. #145

by Paderni, Camillo

Heritage Editions stunning Classical Centaur on black background. Carrying Youth playing a Lyre, this print is from an excavated Herculaneum fresco. Greek mythology Centaurs were half-human and half-horse.

Reproduction of a hand-coloured copperplate engraving by Nicolaus Billy after a drawing by Roman excavator & illustrator, Camillus (Camillo) Paderni (ca.1715-1781) who was Curator at the Museum of Herculanense at King Charles VII of Naples’s royal palace in Portici. 40 years of excavations of the Roman municipeum of Herculaneum that had been buried since Mt Vesuvius erupted in 79AD, exposed wonderful frescoes and other fascinating antiquities that were illustrated in the most important 18th century archaeological work, Le Antichita di Ercolano Esposto (Herculaneum Antiquities Exposed), published in Naples between 1757 and 1792 under the patronage of King Charles II of Naples.

Image measures 245 x 355 mm (9.5/8  x 14 inches). Page size is 300 x 450 mm (11.3/4 x 17.3/4 inches).