Francesco Bartolozzi
Italy, b.1728, d.1815
Olim Truncus Eram Ficulnus Inutile Lignum
- Colour engraving
- Sir Joseph Kinsey bequest
- 482 x 391mm
- 73/18:1
Tags: Classical, jugs (vessels), musical instruments, mythology (literary genre), ovals (plane figures), people (agents), sculpture (visual work), tambourines, women (female humans), wreaths (costume accessories)
The text is the opening of Horace's eighth book of satires:
Olim truncus eram finculus, inutile lignum, cum faber, incertus scammum faceretne Priapum, maluit esse deum.
Once upon a time I was the trunk of a fig-tree, wood good for nothing, and the carpenter, uncertain whether to make of me a stool or a Priapus, decided I was to become a god.
The story is told in the first person by Priapus, or rather by the chunk of wood out of which a Priapus was carved, and set up in the orchards and fields to frighten off birds and thieves.