Existing comment:
Amphiaraus and Eriphyle
The prolific maiolica painter Francesco Xanto Avelli (1486/1487 – after 1542) repeatedly treated the story from Ovid's Metamorphosesof Amphiaraus, a Greek king who was persuaded by his wife, Eriphyle, to take part in a battle in which he knew he would die. Xanto's plate demonstrates his inventive cut-and-paste approach to composing his paintings, altering his printed sources to fit his needs. The figures on this plate were adapted from three different prints. Dressed in a blue garment, Eriphyle derives from a male figure seen from behind at the upper right of The Massacre of the Innocents; the young boy in Isaac Blessing Jacob is reversed and changed into the aged Amphiaraus; and the three soldiers to the left are modeled on three nude goddesses in The Contest between the Muses and the Pierides, exhibited in the next gallery. |