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Lot Essay
The drawing depicts the episode, narrated by Ovid (XIII,162-170), of Ulysses arriving at the court of Lycomedes pretending to be a merchant and offering goods to the King’s daughters. Achilles, who had been sheltering at the court disguised as a girl to avoid fighting in the Trojan War, picks up a sword from the object presented and brandishes it at the sound of a trumpet, betraying his real identity.
The iconography is rare in the 17th Century, but important artists such as Rubens and Poussin depicted the subject in their paintings. In the Louvre there is another drawing by Domenico Piola executed in wash and representing a variant of this composition with the figures depicted full-length in a classical interior (inv. RF755; Mancini, op. cit.). The present drawing was created by Domenico Piola or by a member of his busy workshop, known today as Casa Piola.
The iconography is rare in the 17th Century, but important artists such as Rubens and Poussin depicted the subject in their paintings. In the Louvre there is another drawing by Domenico Piola executed in wash and representing a variant of this composition with the figures depicted full-length in a classical interior (inv. RF755; Mancini, op. cit.). The present drawing was created by Domenico Piola or by a member of his busy workshop, known today as Casa Piola.