GIROMETTI, Giuseppe
(b. 1760, Roma, d. 1851, Roma)

Nessus Abducting Deianira

1815-25
Sardonyx, mounted in gold as a pendant, 405 x 480 mm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The centaur Nessus, midstream, is carrying the protesting Deianira, wife of Hercules, at the very moment that Hercules, standing on the riverbank facing them, fires the arrow that will kill him. Girometti repeated a relief by the Danish Neoclassical sculptor Thorvaldsen. Girometti signed the cameo in Greek.




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