Livio Mehus

This intriguing painting is by Flemish-born artist Livio Mehus. Although it has not been possible to identify with certainty the subject of the work, it is very likely to have been drawn from literature, possibly from an episode of Torquato Tasso's epic poem, the Gerusalemme liberata, first published in 1581. It may depict the moment the crusader Rinaldo leaves the sorceress Armida, who overwhelmed by love, has abducted him to the island of Fortuna. Depictions of this episode however usually include Rinaldo's companions, Carlo and Ubaldo, who come to save him by sea.¹ Moreover, there are elements of the picture, such as the horse in the background, which do not appear in other iterations of the subject and do not fit in with Tasso's narrative.

It has also been suggested that this work may depict the tragic story of the newly-wed couple Cephalus and Procris derived from Ovid's Metamorphoses (VII, 795–866). More specifically, the moment in which Cephalus kills his wife Procris. She follows her husband into the forest after being wrongly told by a faun that he was talking to a secret lover while hunting. Hearing rustling in the leaves, Cephalus throws his spear and accidently kills his wife. At odds with this identification is the figure of Cephalus who is always depicted as a hunter and never in a full suit of armour. Moreover, it is unclear whether the female figure lying prostrate is dead or alive.  

¹ D.C. Miller, Marcantonio Franceschini, Turin 2001, pp. 116–17, no. 21b, reproduced.

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