When representing classical gods and goddesses, Renaissance and later artists naturally followed antique practice and depicted them nude. It was accepted that the ideal bodies most deities inevitably possessed was best expressed in the undraped figure. This print is after a study for the king’s cabinet at Fontainebleau (near Paris) by the Italian artist Francesco Primaticcio (1504-1570). The god Vulcan and his followers, the
Cyclops, are shown naked, striking similar poses but from different angles. The effect is not unlike a sequence of studies of a model by members of a life class.