The Farmer and Hercules, 1570

Giovanni Mario Verdizotti (1525 - 1600)

RA Collection: Art

Giovanni Mario Verizzotti was a priest, humanist and scholar, as well as a painter, designer and engraver, associated with various illustrious persons of his time such as Torquato Tasso and Titian, the latter for whom he acted as secretary and close friend.

The Cento Favole Morali or 'One Hundred Moral Fables' was first published in 1570 by the Venetian publishers Giordano Ziletti. Ziletti is said to have asked Verdizotti to illustrate the fables with his own hand. Each fable is accompanied by one full-page woodcut illustration. Verdizotti based some of his illustrations on Gabriele Faerno’s Fabulae centum ex antiquis autoribus delectae, (Rome, 1563). Verdizotti’s Cento Favole was part of the renewed interest during the Renaissance in the fables of Aesop, and achieved great success during its time, printed in at least 12 editions from 1570-1699.