Cetus, the Sea Monster
Johannes Hevelius, 1690
$270
Print check at 24 x 18 in: 196 dpi, good. Fills the print edge to edge.
Shipping to a US address: $25.90 for this piece, from the print room in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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Cetus, the sea monster Poseidon sent to devour the chained princess Andromeda before Perseus intervened, sprawls across this Hevelius plate as a scaled, tusked hybrid — equal parts whale, serpent, and boar, the period's best guess at rendering a creature no one had ever agreed on the shape of. The myth ties this plate directly to Sidney Hall's Andromeda card elsewhere in this room: two atlases, over a century apart, mapping different chapters of the same sky-spanning story. What to notice: Hevelius positions Cetus beside the Phoenix, a genuinely modern constellation (first catalogued only a century before this atlas was drawn) — a reminder that the sky Hevelius mapped was still actively being filled in, ancient myth and recent invention sharing the same page without any visual distinction between them.
- Maker
- Johannes Hevelius
- Date
- 1690
- Medium of the original
- Plate
- Original held by
- Wikimedia Commons
- Credit
- Wikimedia Commons
- Rights
- Public domain, verified
- Catalogue number
- PA-00269
| Picture | 24 x 18 in |
|---|---|
| Outside size | 25.6 x 19.6 in |
| Depth | 0.9 in (22 mm) |
| Weight | [[REAL PROOF NEEDED: shipped weight per size and frame]] |
| Hanging | [[REAL PROOF NEEDED: hanging hardware Prodigi fits to this frame]] |
| Material | Enhanced matte art paper, 200 gsm; acrylic glazing |
| Made in | Charlotte, North Carolina, by Prodigi |
Before a size goes on sale, the file is measured against it: pixels per inch at that size, how much of the picture a crop would lose, tone and sharpness. A size that fails is not offered, so there is nothing to choose wrong.
| Size | dpi | Grade | How it fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 x 8 in | 442 | Excellent | Trimmed 6.3% |
| 14 x 11 in | 321 | Excellent | Trimmed 4.5% |
| 16 x 12 in | 294 | Excellent | Edge to edge |
| 20 x 16 in | 221 | Excellent | Trimmed 6.3% |
| 24 x 18 in | 196 | Good | Edge to edge |
| Size | Why |
|---|---|
| 12 x 8 in | Wrong shape: a 11% crop |
| 18 x 12 in | Wrong shape: a 11% crop |
| 24 x 16 in | Wrong shape: a 11% crop |
| 30 x 20 in | Wrong shape: a 11% crop |
| 30 x 24 in | 147 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 36 x 24 in | Wrong shape: a 11% crop |
| 40 x 30 in | 117 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 48 x 36 in | 98 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 60 x 40 in | Wrong shape: a 11% crop |
- Scanned
- 2026-10-07
- Master file
- 4,716 x 3,537 px, srgb, sRGB IEC61966-2.1
- Tone
- Darks 114, lights 231 of 255; 0% clipped light, 0% clipped dark
- Colour
- 0% vivid
- Sharpness
- 10.33
- Notes
- Neutrals lean warm (yellow): the paper and varnish of the original, kept as scanned
Shipping for this piece to a US address is $25.90, the print room’s own rate, charged per piece. Checkout shows the total before you pay.
Every piece is printed after you order it, in Charlotte, North Carolina, and ships from there. For now we ship to US addresses only.
A piece that arrives damaged, misprinted or in the wrong size is replaced at our cost. The details: shipping and returns and replacements.
Cabinet of Curiosities
The old world’s book of wonders, for your wall.
All 69 pieces from Cabinet of Curiosities
