Perseus Rescuing Andromeda

Artist: Cavaliere D'Arpino, Italian, 1568–1640
Date: c.1593–94
Material: Oil on lapis lazuli
made in: Rome, Lazio region, Italy, Europe
Classification: Paintings, stone & mineral
Collection: European Art to 1800
Current Location: On View, Gallery 236
Dimensions: 7 15/16 × 6 1/8 × 1/4 in. (20.2 × 15.6 × 0.7 cm)
framed: 12 1/8 × 9 13/16 × 1 1/16 in. (30.8 × 24.9 × 2.7 cm)
Credit Line: Friends Endowment Fund and funds given by Mr. and Mrs. Christian B. Peper, Museum Purchase, Phoebe and Mark Weil, the Kate Stamper Wilhite Charitable Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth F. Teasdale, the Fox Family Foundation, the John M. Olin Charitable Trust, the Scherck Charitable Foundation, the McMillan-Avery Fund of the Saint Louis Community Foundation, the Martha Love Symington Foundation, the John R. Goodall Charitable Trust, Mr. and Mrs. J. Patrick Mulcahy, Mrs. James Lee Johnson Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Charles F. Knight, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Latzer, Mrs. Janet M. Weakley in honor of James D. Burke, Mrs. Ellen Langsdorf, Mr. and Mrs. William H. T. Bush, the Longmire Fund of the St. Louis Community Foundation, Eleanor C. Johnson, Alice S. Gerdine, Mr. and Mrs. Michael Cramer, BSI Constructors, Inc., David R. Cole in memory of Opal Runzi, The G. A. Jr. and Kathryn M. Buder Charitable Foundation, Dr. and Mrs. William H. Danforth, Charles and Patricia Marshall, The Mungenast Foundation, Inc., Mariko A. Nutt, Robert Brookings Smith, The Sidener Foundation, an anonymous donor, Mr. and Mrs. William F. Schierholz, Mr. and Mrs. William C. Lortz, Sewell A. McMillan, Edith B. Schiele; Barbara Wohltman, Mr. and Mrs. Fielding Lewis Holmes, and Ruth Nelson Kraft in honor of James D. Burke; and donors to the 1999 Art Enrichment Fund
Rights: Public Domain
Object Number: 1:2000

NOTES

The intense blue of this unpainted lapis lazuli stone represents sky and water. Cavaliere D’Arpino created this work at a time when artists were beginning to use colored stones as painting surfaces. In this scene, the ancient Greek hero Perseus rescues Andromeda, a captivating Ethiopian princess who had been left by her father as an offering to appease an evil sea monster. Here, Perseus, motivated by his love for Andromeda, prepares to plunge his sword into the monster to save her.

In the earliest versions of the story, Andromeda’s appearance is described as beautiful. Some accounts differed in their description of her skin tone. A few 16th- and 17th-century European artists represented the princess as a dark-skinned woman; Cavaliere d’Arpino adhered to the more widely followed western European tradition that equated beauty with whiteness.

Provenance

by 1920 - 2000
Private Collection, Switzerland [1]

2000/01/27 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, purchased at auction "Important Old Master Paintings," Christie's, New York, January 27, 2000, lot no. 73 [2]

Notes:
[1] According to a letter dated February 3, 2003 from Anthony Crichton-Stuart, Senior Vice President of Christie's, the painting had never before been published, and remained in a Swiss private collection for over eighty years until the time that it was consigned to Christie's [e-mail, SLAM document files].

[2] Minutes of the Collections Committee of the Board of Trustees, Saint Louis Art Museum, March 9, 2000.

We regularly update records, which may be incomplete. If you have additional information, please contact us at provenance@slam.org.

Related Content

Descriptions of Stones

Paintings on Stone: Science and the Sacred 1530–1800