Diana and Actaeon; and The Rape of Europa

These delicate, richly colored gouaches exemplify the distinctive grace which earned Pietro Bianchi the praise of Anthony Clark, who called the artist “the most gifted and intelligent of Roman 18th-century painters” (A.M. Clark, “Introduction to Pietro Bianchi”, Paragone, CLXIX, January 1964, pp. 42-43). A pupil of Giacomo Triga in Rome and later of Giovanni Battista Gaulli in Venice, Bianchi later settled in the Eternal City where he frequently collaborated with Benedetto Luti. In Rome, he worked with Luti on the ceiling decoration of the Martino Room in the Palazzo Colonna at the behest of Don Fabrizio Colonna, and was also contracted to undertake prestigious commissions from Cardinals including Nicola Lercari, Somenico Orsini, and Nicola Spinola.

The story of Diana and Actaeon is recounted in Ovid's Metamorphoses; in it, Actaeon, a young hunter, surprises the goddess Diana during her bath. Embarrassed, she turns him into a stag, which is almost immediately killed by the remaining members of the hunting party, who do not recognize their transformed friend. The Rape of Europa, another subject of choice for centuries of painters, is not from Roman but from Greek mythology. The story tells of the beautiful noblewoman Europa, for whom the continent of Europe is named, and her abduction by the covetous god Zeus who, driven by lust, takes the form of a white bull and carries the maiden away.