Artwork story
About Jason, from 'Game of Mythology' (Jeu de la Mythologie)
The artist and artwork
Stefano della Bella etched Jason, from ‘Game of Mythology’ in 1644 from a design by the French writer Jean Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin. Publisher Henri Le Gras turned their collaboration into a printed card scarcely two inches wide. Fine lines describe an armored Jason pointing across the scene toward a dragon beneath a tree. The Met identifies this impression as the first of five states, evidence that the copper plate was revised as further impressions were made.
The world around it
Cardinal Jules Mazarin commissioned the educational card sets for the young Louis XIV, who was only six in 1644 and had inherited the French throne the previous year. The Met explains that simple games helped the child king learn mythology, geography, celebrated queens, and the history of French kings. An Italian printmaker working in Paris and a French author therefore compressed courtly instruction into pictures that could be shuffled, handled, and remembered through play.
A detail to notice
Jason’s long spear and outstretched arm create one decisive diagonal, leading the eye from his helmeted figure at left to the collapsed, curling dragon at lower right. A dense tree closes that side while horizontal lines open a distant horizon behind Jason. The legendary quest for the Golden Fleece has been reduced to a few actors and gestures on a sheet measuring only 4.5 by 5.5 centimeters. Its smallest feature may be its most surprising: an epic hero was made portable enough for a royal child’s game.
Look closer: materials, scale, and subjects
The recorded object is print made in Etching; first state of five and held in the Drawings and Prints department.
Recorded dimensions include Sheet: 1 3/4 × 2 3/16 in. (4.5 × 5.5 cm).
Subject terms include Shields, Swords, Jason, Dragons, and Trees. Treat them as guideposts, not a complete interpretation.
Collection history and public-domain source
The collection credit line is Gift of Robert Hartshorne, 1918.
The individual artwork page and official image were verified as Public Domain on 2026-08-23.
No Context Gallery independently uses the public-domain image. The source museum has not endorsed, sponsored, or affiliated itself with these products.
Research sources
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