Prometheus

Description According to ancient Greek mythology, the giant Prometheus created the first man out of clay and gave him fire, essential for the development of technology and the arts, by which men became more like gods themselves. Zeus, the king of the gods, punished him for this, chaining him to a mountainside and sending an eagle that every day pecked out Prometheus's liver, which re-grew overnight. He was eventually freed by Hercules. Many artists of the Baroque period sought to depict extreme emotions through body language. Prometheus's convulsed body, splayed diagonally across the rock (a 19th-century replacement, originally including a tiny chain to hold him down), and face distorted by screaming, convey his pain.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
11/01/1958	Treatment	cleaned
4/21/1988	Examination	examined for condition
7/02/1990	Treatment	other

Exhibitions

• Highlights from the Collection. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1998-2001.

Provenance Raoul Heilbronner, Paris, by purchase; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1911, by purchase, Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, 1911