Latona and the Frogs
Utrecht, 1633
Engraving
213 x 260 mm
From a family of engravers, Magdalena van de Passe and her father planned to produce an illustrated book of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. It was published posthumously in 1677. Here, the superbly detailed landscape dwarfs the goddess Latona and her babies, Apollo and Diana, who drink from a lake. They are scorned by rural labourers paddling in the water to make it muddy. In revenge, Latona transforms them into frogs. The artist shows them mid transformation, with their hands and faces the first to change. This emphasis on body parts deemed particularly expressive and human encourages feelings of disgust and horror in the viewer, urging us to take sides with the angry and protective mother.
Purchased from Elizabeth Harvey-Lee, March 1996 (No. 1996.3)
