SALVIATI, Cecchino del
(b. 1510, Firenze, d. 1563, Roma)

The Story of David (detail)

1552-54
Fresco
Sala dell'Udienza Invernale, Palazzo Ricci-Sacchetti, Rome

The remarkable naked youth, with wings on his shoulders and feet balancing a scale on a razor blade, is the god Kairos, the personification of Opportunity. Here Salviati paraphrases an antique bas-relief, preserved in several copies, that he presumably studied in Florence.