Aurora Taking Leave of Tithonus - Francesco Solimena, 1704 by Atelier Liesjes

About "Aurora Taking Leave of Tithonus - Francesco Solimena, 1704"

by Atelier Liesjes

About the artwork

In Greek legend, Eos, or Aurora, the goddess of dawn, falls in love with the mortal Tithonus, son of King Laomedon of Troy. According to the Homeric hymn to Aphrodite, Aurora prevailed upon Jupiter to grant the young human immortality, although she later realized that in this request she had not provided for his eternal youth. To her horror, the once beautiful Tithonus begins to show signs of age as their love affair continues. Solimena illustrates a moment later in the story, where Aurora, preparing to depart for earth to bring about the dawn, sits on a cloud while an angel crowns her with a garland of flowers. She looms dominantly over her elderly lover, who shields his eyes from the brightness of the goddess. The goddess, tormented by Tithonus' wilted appearance and failing body, finally decided to put him out of his misery and transformed him into a grasshopper, to be reminded of him whenever she heard the insect's song.

The woman here stands vigorously at the top of the scene, topless. The maid is seated with a blue robe and her breasts exposed, and receives a wreath of flowers on her head.

The man sits naked with a yellow robe over the loins and the muscular chest or torso bared.

Francesco Solimena (4 October 1657-3 April 1747) was a prolific Italian painter of the Baroque period, one of an established family of painters and draughtsmen.