This multicolored sheet drawn with three different pencils corresponds in its academic technique to other works by José Atanasio Echeverría, especially the title page for the “Escuela Italiana” (inv. no. 38524, cat. no 37). August Mayer called his sheets "innocuous, neat, and unemotional."[1]
In Greek mythology, there are two figures whose punishment is presented in a similar manner: Prometheus, who brought fire to mankind, was chained to a rock by Zeus and condemned to have his liver eaten by the eagle Ethon. Each day, the eagle feasted, and each day, Prometheus's liver grew back until Hercules finally freed him. The latter, however, was incapable of removing all of the rock from the chain, and thus Zeus was able to maintain that Prometheus remained in chains. Tityus suffered a similar fate after attempting to ravish Leto. Banished to the deepest part of the Underworld and chained to the ground, he was tortured daily by two vultures, who devoured his likewise regenerating liver. Accordingly, in depictions of Tityus, one finds as a rule two vultures, whereas Prometheus can be identified by a chain with a stone, an eagle, and a torch.
Neither the stone on the chain nor the torch appear in this drawing, but there is only one bird, and it is clearly an eagle.

Jens Hoffmann-Samland


1 Mayer 1918, 110.

Details about this work

• Provenance

  [José Atanasio Echeverría]; Julian Benjamin Williams, Seville (d. 1866); John Wetherell (?) (d. 1865); Horatio/Nathan Wetherell (?) (until 1874); Frederick William Cosens, London (from 1874 to 1890); Sotheby's, London, auction of the property of Frederick William Cosens (from November 11 to 21, 1890); Bernard Quaritch Ltd., London (from November 1890 to July 1891); acquired by the Hamburger Kunsthalle (July 14, 1891).

• Bibliography

  The Spanish Gesture. Drawings from Murillo to Goya in the Hamburger Kunsthalle, Jens Hoffmann-Samland, with contributions by María Cruz de Carlos Varona, Gabriele Finaldi, José Manuel Matilla u. a., 2014, S. 200, Abb., Abb.-Nr. , Kat.-Nr. 42