Plate 107: The Wreck of Ceyx's Ship (Ceyx Clarium oraculum petens, tempstate in Aegeo mari obruitur), from Ovid's 'Metamorphoses' 1606

Antonio Tempesta created this print, 'The Wreck of Ceyx's Ship' in the late 16th or early 17th century, using etching on paper. It illustrates a scene from Ovid's 'Metamorphoses', a text which was central to the artistic culture of its time. Tempesta was working in Italy, a culture in which the display of classical learning served to bolster the power of religious and secular elites. Visual codes, such as the figure of Ceyx standing with his lyre, and the dramatic scene of shipwreck are allusions to his social standing. Prints such as this, which were made for a growing market of collectors, served to reinforce the cultural values of their time. Studying the iconography of such images, and the system of patronage that produced them, helps the historian to understand the complex ways in which art is always embedded in social and institutional conditions.