SCHIAVONE, Andrea
(b. ca. 1510, Zara, d. 1563, Venezia)

The Infancy of Jupiter

c. 1560
Oil on canvas
Private collection

In this painting, the direct impact of the Titian's Diana and Actaeon is evident in the picturesquely rusticated classical architecture on the left background, and especially in the descending chain of mountains on the right. In the left foreground, the infant Jupiter is shown with three nymphs and the goat Amalthea, to whom he was entrusted by his mother to protect him from his child-eating father Cronus. The wild Curetes, whose noise helped save the infant by drowning his cries, are interpreted by the painter as musicians playing Renaissance viola da gambas and a recorder. Despite his lack of interest in anatomical accuracy, Schiavone succeeds in investing his composition with great rhythmical fluency.