Federazione Italiana Mercanti d'Arte

Andromeda

Roman school of 16 / 17th ccentury

"Perseus and Andromeda"
Roman school
Late 16 th/early 17th century
Oil painting on canvas
Measures 112 x 146
Without frame
Very good condition

Andromeda, young and beautiful daughter of the rulers of Ethiopia Cepheus and Cassiopeia, was chained to a cliff and fed to a terrible sea monster to appease the wrath of Neptune, offended by the pride of Cassiopeia who had proclaimed herself the most beautiful of the Nereids .
According to another version of the myth, Cassiopeia had instead affirmed that it was her daughter Andromeda who could boast of this coveted primacy.
In any case Andromeda was saved by the heroic intervention of Perseus, already protagonist of the decapitation of the Gorgon Medusa, who in front of the dramatic scene did not hesitate to help the splendid victim of the cruel sacrifice.
Riding his winged horse Pegasus, he kills the monster and after having freed her and brought her to safety by her Parents, asks for the hand of the beautiful Princess to marry her.
Iconographically, the myth of Andromeda had great success in Roman Baroque painting of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries and was commissioned, often on a large scale, to furnish the halls of the sumptuous palaces of the city.
The scene depicting the completely naked body of a young and attractive woman offered as food to the sea monster but also to the eyes of the spectators, was an evident morbid attraction for those times, with ill-concealed pornographic purposes.
Our canvas, in particular, seems to leave out the episodic context to offer an image of the protagonist in a highly erotic pose.
In fact, the author exposes the splendid figure of Andromeda in the foreground with great realistic effect, leaving very little to the imagination, while the monster and the heroic Perseus riding Pegasus are just hinted at and described with a few vigorous brushstrokes.
It is interesting to note that despite her Ethiopian origins, Andromeda is always immortalized with white skin, precisely to satisfy the socio-cultural ideologies and aesthetic preferences of the clients.

We underline the rarity of the painting which should be considered as an example of the privileges granted
to the Aristocracy as opposed to the severe moralistic canons imposed by the Church on the vulgar populace.
Given the important dimensions of the work and the excellent result on the wall, we offer it without a frame.
It is however possible, at the customer's discretion, to complete it with a thin golden rod frame.
Andromeda Sold contact us
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