Sunday, July 14, 2013

Metabus (1808)

Jean-Baptiste Peytavin: Metabus and Camilla

This painting depicts an incident from Virgil's Aeniad. Metabus was king of the Volsci was the father of Camilla. Driven from his throne, Metabus and his infant daughter Camilla were chased into the wilderness by armed Volsci. When the river Amasenus blocked his path, he bound her to a spear and promised Diana that Camilla would be her servant if she would safely transported to the opposite bank. He then safely threw her to the other side, and swam across to retrieve her.

Peytavin was a painter of religious and historical scenes.

No comments:

Post a Comment