SCHOOL OF CREMONA (EARLY 17TH CENTURY)
The dream of Parrashius
monogrammed L.S.E
oil on copper
18.6 x 14.2 cm (7 1/3 x 5 1/2 in)

PROVENANCE:
Private Collection, Switzerland

The present work is likely to represent the Greek painter Parrhasius of Ephesus in his studio, flanked by a terracotta sculpture of a satyr on his right and a monumental head of Hercules on his left.

Carving tools lying on the table suggest that Parrhasius himself completed the sculpture of the satyr, a reference almost certainly to Pliny the Elder. In his Historia Naturalis, vol. XXXV Pliny recounts that Parrhasius’ painting technique compared to that of a sculptor, and that he relied on outline to articulate the shapes and volumes within his paintings (1). Parrhasius’ ability to achieve such three dimensional realism in his compositions won him a contest with the other great painter, Zeuxis of Heraclea.

The closed eyes of Hercules - asleep - allude to Parrhasius’ dream. Although none of Parrhasius’ works survived, Pliny does record a painting of Hercules that Parrhasius completed for the Temple of Athena Lindia on the island of Rhodes which was destroyed by fire in the 4th century BC. The painting reportedly bore the epigram Quale nelle tenebre della notte apparve a Parrasio nel sogno, tale qui lo si vede (transl.: The Hercules who appeared in Parrhasius’s dream at night, is the same one seen here).

The present oil on copper is by an artist from the School of Cremona, the city of which Hercules was the mythical founder. In the 16th century Antonio Campi (1524-1587) founded, together with his family, the Cremonese School of painting.

(1) Sculpt also denotes delineavit in Latin, further emphasising the close relationship between sculpture and painting.