Nympha ex balneo exausta - Angelo Campanella

A detailed 18th-century etching by Angelo Campanella, depicting a mythological scene of a nymph and a satyr, based on a composition by Raphael.

This fine art print, titled Nympha ex balneo exausta, is an etching and engraving by the Italian printmaker Angelo Campanella. The work depicts a classical mythological scene, featuring a nymph seated upon a rock, drying her hair after bathing. Beside her, partially obscured by foliage, a satyr observes the figure. The composition draws upon the visual language of the Renaissance, specifically referencing the work of Raphael, as noted in the print's inscription.

Campanella demonstrates technical precision in his use of line and cross-hatching to define the textures of the nymph's hair, the rugged surface of the rock, and the dense foliage of the tree above. The background features a distant, rolling terrain with architectural elements, providing a sense of depth and scale to the scene. The print is a reproduction of a painting attributed to Raphael, translated into the medium of engraving by Campanella during his time in Rome. The inscription at the base dedicates the work to Philipp Hackert, a painter to Ferdinand IV, King of the Two Sicilies, and identifies the publisher as Pietro Paolo Montagnani-Mirabili.

As a piece of late eighteenth-century printmaking, this work reflects the period's interest in the reproduction and dissemination of classical and Renaissance imagery. The balance between the foreground figures and the atmospheric background is characteristic of the Neoclassical approach to composition, where clarity and order are maintained despite the mythological subject matter. The print serves as a record of the artistic dialogue between the masters of the Italian Renaissance and the printmakers of the Enlightenment era, who sought to preserve and circulate these compositions for a wider audience of collectors and scholars.