Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
The painting is a study for one of Tiepolo’s four ceiling frescoes in the Palazzo Archinto, Milan, which was destroyed by bombing in 1943. A fresco in the main salon, representing an Allegory of the Arts, bore the date 1731. The study is owned by the Frick Collection and thanks to them we can present it today. : )
According to legend, Cassiopeia, Queen of Ethiopia, had angered the Nereids by boasting that she and her daughter Andromeda were as beautiful as they. To punish her presumption, Neptune sent flood waters and a sea-monster to ravage the land. Learning from an oracle that his daughter must be sacrificed to the monster in order to save his people, King Cepheus had Andromeda chained to a rock by the sea. The hero Perseus saw her and, moved by her beauty, rescued Andromeda, sweeping her skyward on his winged horse, Pegasus. The luminous heavens, conceived as an illustion to be seen from below, open to reveal Minerva and Jupiter seated on gold-tinged clouds.
P.S. Giovanni Battista Tiepolo is called sometimes the last Venetian master. Read here why!