Salomon, Bernard

France, (c.1508-c. 1561)

  • Bernard Salomon - Circe turns Ulysses' crew into swine
  • Circe turns Ulysses’ crew into swine

  • (1557), woodcut engraving
  • illustration from:
    Ovid. Metamorphoses. Lyon: (1557).
  • Editor’s Note:

    This image was copied by Virgil Solis for Feyerabent’s 1563 edition of the Metamorphoses produced in Frankfurt.

  • Bernard Salomon - The Parable of the Prodigal Son
  • The Parable of the Prodigal Son

  • (c. 1557), wood engraving
  • illustration from:
    Biblia Sacra. Lyons: Jean de Tournes, (1557).
  • Editor’s Note:

    In the upper left of this image is a scene of the Prodigal Son tending swine:

    Bernard Salomon - The Parable of the Prodigal Son

About the Artist

Bernard Salomon (c.1508-c. 1561) was a French painter, draughtsman and engraver. He was familiarly called “Le Petit Bernard,” the ‘Petit’ referred to the intricate detail Salomon worked into his designs at small scale.

Salomon designed and engraved numerous plates for booksellers in Lyon, especially Jean de Tournes. His vignettes for the Fables d’Esope (1551), the Quadrins historiques de la Bible (1553, 1555), the Figures du Nouveau Testament (1556) and the Metamorphoses d’Ovide (1557) were inspired by the elegant Mannerist art of the Fontainebleau School.

Many of Salomon’s works became models for engravers working in Lyon and were widely appreciated during his lifetime and were also distributed, copied, recopied and adapted by artists and artisans throughout Europe far on in to the 17th century. [DES-01/11]

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