Cyrus suckled by female dogs
Canvas
97x132 inch
Origin :
Sale in London, Christie's, June 27, 1969.
Castiglione produced several works on this theme. A larger version with variations is kept in the collection of Palazzo Durazzo-Pallavicini in Genoa (218 x 316 cm).
Herodotus (484-425 BC) recounts the prophecy which predicted that Astyages, king of Media, would be dethroned by his grandson. The sovereign therefore gave the order to kill the young Cyrus who, to be spared, was entrusted to a shepherd and abandoned in the mountains. Breastfed by a female dog, he was taken in by this shepherd and his wife. The prophecy came true and Cyrus II the Great founded the Persian Achaemenid Empire around 550 BC. JC
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