The sacrifice of Princess Polyxena

Pietro Berrettini, known as Pietro da Cortona (Cortona 1596 - Rome 1669), circle of

Oil on canvas,
33 x 49 cm,
framed 50 x 65

The superb work proposed stages, with a composition of great scenic effect, the mythological episode of the sacrifice of the Trojan princess Polyxena.

As told in the Aeneid, Polyxena, the young daughter of the king of Troy, Priam, is sacrificed in front of the great tomb of Achilles by a priest by order of the son of the great Greek hero, Neoptolemus. Achilles had in fact fallen madly in love with the princess and intended to make her his bride: after her death, Polissena was therefore forced to follow the fate of her lover, on the very day that Troy was set on fire.

The setting and the classicist rigor of the style, the remarkable pictorial quality and the brilliant chromatic range that are appreciated in the painting, are typical features of Pietro da Cortona's production, from whose repertoire our painter must have drawn. Great proponent of the Roman Baroque, appreciated to the point that the term 'cortonism' was coined from his name, to indicate his style, sumptuous and allegorical, where he will be able to combine classical antiquity with scenographic and perspective illusionism.

The intensity of the colors, the vigorous contrasts of light and the chromatic range of our painting, played on a dominant brunette with bright purple and lapis blue inserts, are a more than fitting example, and suggest a dating towards the mid-seventeenth century , at the moment of the closest relationship with the environment of the French classicist painters.

Finally, the statuesque conformation of the bodies and the masterful use of the drapery technique for the clothes and cloaks of the characters emerge.

STORAGE

The canvas is in excellent condition. Features an old rewind. Complete with antique neoclassical frame, not contemporary with the canvas.

The work, like all our objects, is accompanied by a certificate of photographic authenticity in accordance with the law.