Etching, circa 1662. 475x723 mm; 17x28 1/2 inches, small margin. Second state (of 2), with added drypoint. A very good impression of this large, scarce etching with strong contrasts and little to no sign of wear.
Polycrates was the tyrant of the Greek island of Samos from the 540s BC to 522 BC. He had a reputation as both a fierce warrior and an enlightened ruler. Polycrates met his end during the Persian invasion of Greece in 1522. He was double-crossed by the Persian leader Oroetes and assassinated. The historian Herodotus is vague about the manner of Polycrates' death, saying only that it was an undignified end for a glorious ruler; he may have been impaled and his dead body was crucified. Rosa (1615-1673) captures this undignified manner of death in his representation.
There is an oil painting by Rosa of the same subject, on which the etching is loosely-based, in the Art Institute of Chicago. There is also a finished study for the etching, done in chalk, by Rosa in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence. Bartsch 10; Wallace 111.
