Achilles hastening to avenge the death of Patroclus

The subject of this large and dramatic composition has been traditionally identified as Achilles hastening to avenge the death of Patroclus, an episode from the Iliad. It was with stories of Achilles that Giani decorated a salone, known as Galleria dell’Iliade, in one of his most important commissions, the Palazzo Milzetti in Faenza, completed at the very beginning of the 19th Century (C. Franchi and A. Iannucci, ‘Un’Iliade neoclassica nelle decorazioni di Felice Giani a Palazzo Milzetti’, in E. Rossoni and I. Graziani, Felice Giani (1758-1823). Pittore e decoratore nell’etá neoclassica, Milan, 2023, pp. 87-99). The scene depicted here does not appear on the walls of the Galleria dell’Iliade, but the composition recalls very closely another scene in that room, Achilles dragging the body of Hector around the walls of Troy, painted in one of the lunettes (ibid., p. 266, fig. 1). The same imagery of a fully armed hero ferociously riding his chariot is found in another room of the palazzo, the ceiling of the Sala della Guerra depicting the Triumph of War.

The present sheet is compositionally nearly identical to a very large (51 x 67 cm) vibrant oil sketch executed with the brush in a quick linear style in the Pierre Rosenberg collection in Paris, published by Anna Ottani Cavina (A. Ottani Cavina, Felice Giani 1768-1823 e la cultura di fine secolo, Milan, 1999, I, pp. 115, ill.).