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Lot Essay
The scene depicted is an illustration for Book XIV of Ovid's Metamorphoses. The tale of Picus and Caneus concerns two victims of Circe, the sorceress who fell in love with Picus, husband of the nymph Caneus. She transformed him into a boar and later into a woodpecker.
Baron Portalis recorded fifty drawings by Bouchardon illustrating the Metamorphoses, quoting essentially the catalogue of the Paignon-Dijonval collection published in 1810.
Baron Portalis recorded fifty drawings by Bouchardon illustrating the Metamorphoses, quoting essentially the catalogue of the Paignon-Dijonval collection published in 1810.