Lot Essay
This is one of a number of drawings in which Rowlandson alluded to antique art and mythology. Prometheus was, according to Greek legend, a Titan who created man out of clay and gave him fire. Zeus took the fire away, but Prometheus stole a spark and was punished by Zeus by being chained to a rock on Mount Caucasus while an eagle continuously pecked at his liver. He was seen as a champion of man against the authority of the gods, and was the subject of Aeschylus's Prometheus Bound, Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, a ballet with music by Beethoven, and paintings by Rubens and Jordaens.