Items Similar to Andromeda Monster Paint Oil on canvas Old master 16/17th Century Roman school
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 16
Andromeda Monster Paint Oil on canvas Old master 16/17th Century Roman school1580-1640
1580-1640
About the Item
Antichità Castelbarco SRLS is proud to present:
Painter active in Rome
late 16th - early 17th century
Andromeda and the monster
Oil on canvas
137 x 102 cm. - In frame 152 x 118 cm.
The subject of the painting, derived from Ovid's Metamorphoses, is inspired by the myth of the princess Andromeda, daughter of the King of Ethiopia Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia.
The heroine's misfortune was to have a mother who praised her beauty as superior even to that of the Nereids, the sea nymphs daughters of the god Poseidon. According to mythology, the girl was therefore chained to a cliff and offered as a sacrifice to the terrible monster sent to appease the wrath of the nymphs, offended by Cassiopeia's unforgivable pride.
Consider that the depiction of this myth, and in particular its climax with Andromeda offered to the monster, had great fortune in Roman Baroque painting of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, often commissioned as a subject to decorate the sumptuous private rooms of the aristocratic palaces of the City.
The beautiful maiden is depicted here according to an iconography particularly dear to the artists of this period, with her pose evoking the classical goddesses, chained to a rock and, just as described in the words of Ovid, of great sensuality.
''as soon as he saw her (Perseus, her liberator) bound with his arms to the hard rock, if it had not been for a slight breeze moving her hair and the tepid weeping that descended from her eyes, he would have believed her to be a marble statue ... without knowing it he caught fire and was astonished and enraptured by the image of beauty he saw ...'' (Metamorphoses IV, vv. 672-683).
Naked, with a transparent veil at the level of her pubis, her hands tied to the rock on the shore and her face tense with fear of the imminent danger, with the sea monster with its gaping jaws to which she must be sacrificed, this is how we find her in this painting, before Perseus arrives to save her. Considering therefore the context of reference, the canvas seems to have been created as a pretext to offer the viewer an image of an extremely sensual, almost erotic female nude, as an object of pleasure for aristocratic patrons of the 16th and 17th century, who took great delight in possessing such compositions and showing them off in their collections.
Finally, despite her Ethiopian origins, Andromeda is here immortalised with snow-white skin, a detail that must have winked at the tastes and aesthetic canons of the patrons, who would certainly not have liked a figure with black skin as a beauty to be admired.
The work, which is to be attributed to the hand of an author active in Rome at the turn of the century, is iconographically inspired by the figure of Andromeda painted by Polidoro da Caravaggio in one of the frescoes on the façade of the Palazzo del Marchese del Bufalo-Cancellieri, once located near the Trevi Fountain. The figure of the monster with gaping jaws, on the other hand, is taken from an engraving of Andromeda and the Monster by Agostino Carracci, dating from around 1590
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
The painting is sold complete with an attractive gilded frame and is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity and descriptive iconographic card.
We take care of and organise the transport of the purchased works, both for Italy and abroad, through professional and insured carriers.
Should you have the desire to see this or other works in person, we will be happy to welcome you to our new gallery in Riva del Garda, Viale Giuseppe Canella 18. We are waiting for you!
Contact us for any information or to arrange a visit, we will be happy to answer you.
- Attributed to:Painter active in Rome (1580 - 1640)
- Creation Year:1580-1640
- Dimensions:Height: 59.85 in (152 cm)Width: 46.46 in (118 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Riva del Garda, IT
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU988112977542
About the Seller
4.8
Platinum Seller
These expertly vetted sellers are 1stDibs' most experienced sellers and are rated highest by our customers.
Established in 2017
1stDibs seller since 2018
203 sales on 1stDibs
Typical response time: <1 hour
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: Riva del Garda, Italy
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 7 days of delivery.
More From This SellerView All
- Storm See Water Landscape Vernet 18th Century Paint Oil on canvas Old masterLocated in Riva del Garda, ITClaude-Joseph Vernet (Avignon, 1714 - Paris, 1789) workshop of The Storm on the Lighthouse 1750/60 Technique: Oil on canvas Dimensions: 48 x 67 cm / framed 77 x 93 cm We share a highly pleasing work, a splendid marine executed by a talented painter from the workshop of the Frenchman Claude-Joseph Vernet, depicting a coastal view set in a Mediterranean port with the sea still stormy. The focal point of the composition is the large lighthouse at the entrance to the port, which, due to the power of the sea, was unable to bring to safety the ship that had crashed against the rocks, while the silhouette of a second sailing ship can be glimpsed in the distance. The canvas shows in full the pictorial, chromatic and narrative characteristics of the great master Vernet's coastal landscapes, characterised by the inimitable atmospheric conditions always hovering between darkness and light, storm and calm, instilling the observer with contrasting feelings, made even more intense by a palette of vibrant and highly contrasting colours. A similar composition, from which our author must necessarily have drawn, also attributed to the workshop of Claude Joseph Vernet is to be found in France, in Nantes, at the Musée d'Arts.  The effects of the light create a visual drama in the contrast between the darkness of the rain-laden storm clouds and the gash of clear sky that is opening up, pierced by the timid rays of light. The real magic of the painting is the painter's highly personal use of light and colour, with chiaroscuro effects that accentuate its three-dimensionality and movement. The compositional typology, as well as the quality of execution and attention to detail we are dealing with, are typical elements of the 'prototypes' conceived by the master, later taken up around the middle of the 18th century by his best pupils. Similar versions can be found in the most important international museums and private collections, belonging to a large series of paintings that the master created, together with his collaborators, during his stay in Italy. Vernet lived in Rome for twenty years (1734 - 1753), becoming particularly popular with English aristocrats who stopped there on their Grand Tour. International fame followed him from Rome to France, and to his English and French clients he added German princes...Category
18th Century Old Masters Paintings
MaterialsOil
- Coastal Landscape See Paint Lacroix de Marseille Oil on canvas 18th Century ArtLocated in Riva del Garda, ITCoastal view at sunset with fishermen and boats Atelier of Charles François Grenier De Lacroix, called de Marseille (Marseille 1700 - Berlin 1782) Oil on canvas 50 x 62 cm. - in fra...Category
18th Century Old Masters Paintings
MaterialsOil
- Children Landscape Jeaurat Paint Oil on canvas 18th Century Old master FrenchLocated in Riva del Garda, ITÉtienne Jeaurat (Vermenton 1699 - Versailles 1789) Game of children intent on harvesting grain (Allegory of Summer) Mid-18th century Oil on canvas 97 x 129 cm - Framed cm. 112 x 14...Category
18th Century Old Masters Paintings
MaterialsOil
- Van Uden Landscape Paint Oil on table 17th Century Flemish school Old master ArtLocated in Riva del Garda, ITLucas Van Uden (Antwerp 1595 - Antwerp 1673) Signed lower right: (Lucas v. ud...) Hillside landscape with pond oil on wood panel 34 x 54 cm, with frame 51 x 71 cm. Work published ...Category
17th Century Old Masters Paintings
MaterialsOil
- Christ St. Peter De Matteis Paint Oil on canvas 17/18 Century Old master ItalyLocated in Riva del Garda, ITPaolo De Matteis (Naples, 1662 - Naples, 1728) attributed to Christ Delivering the Keys to St. Peter (Handing over the Keys) Oil on canvas 88 x 138 cm./ Framed 98 x 149 cm. The pro...Category
17th Century Old Masters Paintings
MaterialsOil
- Van Den Bossche Alexander The Great Paint Oil on canvas 17/18th Century FlemishLocated in Riva del Garda, ITBalthasar Van Den Bossche (Antwerp, 1681 - 1715) Alexander the Great and Campaspe in the studio of the painter Apelles The canvas was exhibited in Perugia (Museo di Palazzo della Pe...Category
17th Century Old Masters Paintings
MaterialsOil
You May Also Like
- Grand 19th Century English Marine Painting in Stunning LightBy John Wilson EwbankLocated in London, GBJohn Wilson Ewbank (1799 - 1847) Shipping in the Harbour, South Shields Oil on canvas 39.5 x 58 inches unframed 47.75 x 66.5 inches framed Provenance: Christie's October 2002; Lot 11. Fine Art Society; Private Collection This marvellous up to scale Ewbank is full of light and warmth and almost certainly his greatest work of the sort rarely - if ever - seen on the market. John W. Ewbank (4 May 1799–28 November 1847), was an English-born landscape and marine painter largely operational from Scotland. The Humber river is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. Life Ewbank was born at Darlington on 4 May 1799, the son of Michael Ewbank, an innkeeper. He was adopted as a child by a wealthy uncle who lived at Wycliffe, on the banks of the River Tees, in the North Riding of Yorkshire. Intended for the Roman Catholic priesthood, he was sent to Ushaw College, from which he absconded. In 1813 Ewbank was apprenticed to Thomas Coulson, an ornamental painter in Newcastle. In around 1816 he moved with Coulson to Edinburgh, where he had some lessons with Alexander Nasmyth. He found work both as a painter and a teacher. He was nominated in 1830 one of the foundation members of the Royal Scottish Academy. In 1833 he is listed as living at 7 Union Street on the eastern fringe of the New Town in Edinburgh. Works His sketches from nature were especially admired, and a series of 51 drawings of Edinburgh by him were engraved by W. H. Lizars for James Browne's Picturesque Views of Edinburgh (1825). He also made a reputation with cabinet pictures of banks of rivers, coast scenes, and marine subjects. As an illustrator he illustrated some early editions of Scott's Waverley Novels and one edition of Gilbert White...Category
19th Century Old Masters Figurative Paintings
MaterialsOil
- Important 18th Century Royal Academy Old Master Oil Painting of Georgian LondonLocated in Gerrards Cross, GB‘St. James’ Day’ by Richard Morton Paye (1750-1820). This very large and important 18th century oil on canvas depicts a diverse crowd of Londoners at an oyster stand on a summer’s ev...Category
1780s Old Masters Figurative Paintings
MaterialsOil
- Allegory of AbundanceLocated in New York, NYPainted in collaboration with Hendrick van Balen (Antwerp, 1575 – 1632). Provenance: Private Collection, Uruguay, since the 1930s. The eldest son of Jan Br...Category
17th Century Old Masters Paintings
MaterialsCopper
- A WolfLocated in New York, NYProvenance: The Marchesi Strozzi, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence Sale, Christie’s, London, May 20, 1993, lot 315, as by Carl Borromaus Andreas Ruthart...Category
17th Century Old Masters Animal Paintings
MaterialsPaper, Canvas, Oil
- River Landscape with a Windmill and ChapelBy Jan Josefsz Van GoyenLocated in Palm Desert, CA"River Landscape with a Windmill and Chapel" is a painting by Dutch Old Master Painter, Jan van Goyen. There are traces of a signature on the bow of the boat...Category
1640s Old Masters Landscape Paintings
MaterialsPanel, Oil
- Early oil depicting the Great Fire of LondonLocated in London, GBThe Great Fire of London in September 1666 was one of the greatest disasters in the city’s history. The City, with its wooden houses crowded together in narrow streets, was a natural fire risk, and predictions that London would burn down became a shocking reality. The fire began in a bakery in Pudding Lane, an area near the Thames teeming with warehouses and shops full of flammable materials, such as timber, oil, coal, pitch and turpentine. Inevitably the fire spread rapidly from this area into the City. Our painting depicts the impact of the fire on those who were caught in it and creates a very dramatic impression of what the fire was like. Closer inspection reveals a scene of chaos and panic with people running out of the gates. It shows Cripplegate in the north of the City, with St Giles without Cripplegate to its left, in flames (on the site of the present day Barbican). The painting probably represents the fire on the night of Tuesday 4 September, when four-fifths of the City was burning at once, including St Paul's Cathedral. Old St Paul’s can be seen to the right of the canvas, the medieval church with its thick stone walls, was considered a place of safety, but the building was covered in wooden scaffolding as it was in the midst of being restored by the then little known architect, Christopher Wren and caught fire. Our painting seems to depict a specific moment on the Tuesday night when the lead on St Paul’s caught fire and, as the diarist John Evelyn described: ‘the stones of Paul’s flew like grenades, the melting lead running down the streets in a stream and the very pavements glowing with the firey redness, so as no horse, nor man, was able to tread on them.’ Although the loss of life was minimal, some accounts record only sixteen perished, the magnitude of the property loss was shocking – some four hundred and thirty acres, about eighty per cent of the City proper was destroyed, including over thirteen thousand houses, eighty-nine churches, and fifty-two Guild Halls. Thousands were homeless and financially ruined. The Great Fire, and the subsequent fire of 1676, which destroyed over six hundred houses south of the Thames, changed the appearance of London forever. The one constructive outcome of the Great Fire was that the plague, which had devastated the population of London since 1665, diminished greatly, due to the mass death of the plague-carrying rats in the blaze. The fire was widely reported in eyewitness accounts, newspapers, letters and diaries. Samuel Pepys recorded climbing the steeple of Barking Church from which he viewed the destroyed City: ‘the saddest sight of desolation that I ever saw.’ There was an official enquiry into the causes of the fire, petitions to the King and Lord Mayor to rebuild, new legislation and building Acts. Naturally, the fire became a dramatic and extremely popular subject for painters and engravers. A group of works relatively closely related to the present picture have been traditionally ascribed to Jan Griffier...Category
17th Century Old Masters Landscape Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Oil
Recently Viewed
View AllMore Ways To Browse
Rome Painting
Painting Of Rome
16 Century Paintings
Great Masters Art
Painting Italy Rome
Italian Painting Rome
Paintings Of Rome Italy
Great Masters Painting
Italian Oil Painters
Rome City
Oil Painting By Italian Painters
16 Century Oil Paintings
Old Masters Painters
Oil Paintings Rome
Oil Paintings Of Rome
Rome Antique Art
Oil On Canvas Old Masters
Black Framed Antique Oil Paint