Grand Caprice architectural with
the race of Hippomenes and Atalanta
Canvas
Without frame
197x245 inch
This spectacular "caprice" of palatial format mixes various imaginary architectures inspired by Antiquity, or inspired by the engraved models of Vedreman, Vries or Serlio. It is animated by a subject taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses (10, vv. 560-707). Atalanta had sworn to marry only the one who could beat her in the race, killing the suitors who failed. Hippomenes presented himself in turn. About to be overtaken, he was helped by Venus, seen here in her chariot in the sky, who gave him three golden apples from the garden of the Hesperides and let them fall to the ground. At the bottom right of our canvas, we see Atalanta bend down to pick them up, which allowed Hippomenes to be victorious and to marry the heroine. The collaboration of the two perspective painters, Codazzi father and son, with the figure painter Filippo Lauri is well documented through some fifteen works, dating from the 1660s.
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