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DIALV5-shannon-frontispiece

This lithograph is printed in dark blue ink in a roundel shape, with a border. The image depicts two mythological figures, Mercury and Bacchus, traveling over a sea. Mercury takes up most of the image plane; his body is bent, with his feet reaching towards the bottom right of the roundel, and his face and arms bent toward the upper left. His face, bent downwards to his right arm, is in profile. He is naked but draped, holding a scepter in his right hand and wearing a winged helmet and sandals. He carries a child, Bacchus, on his shoulders. The child is nude, and his head is garlanded with flowers. Bacchus grips one wing of the helmet with his right hand while his left arm is gripped by Mercury. Below and behind them, the sea fills the rest of the roundel. Several dolphins swim in the sea, their heads and tails sporadically emerging from the water.