GIOVANNI DA SAN GIOVANNI
(b. 1592, San Giovanni Valdarno, d. 1636, Firenze)

Aurora and Tithonus

1634-35
Detached fresco, 360 x 160 cm
Museo Bardini, Florence

Aurora was the sister of Helios, the sun-god. Every morning she rose from her bed leaving her aged husband Tithonus still sleeping, and led Helios into the heavens. She was a popular figure in seventeenth-century Baroque ceiling painting. Giovanni da San Giovanni's painting was originally at centre ceiling of a room in Pucci Palace in Florence, as can be seen from the much foreshortened figure of Tithonus.