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Lot Essay
Surprisingly little is known about the life and career of Carlo Cornara. He is believed to have begun his artistic training with Camillo Procaccini, after whose death he continued to paint independently in a style more refined than his master and, at times, strongly influenced by Correggio. He enjoyed the fervent admiration of a number of his contemporaries, among them, Gualdo Priorato, who remembered him among the most talented artists of his time working in Milan (G. Gualdo Priorato, Relatione della Città e Stato di Milano, Milan, 1666, pp. 64 and 77), and Pellegrino Orlandi, who declared that he “made beautiful things” (P. A.Orlandi, Abecedario pittorico, Bologna, 1704, p. 109). Orazio Archinti, Count of Novellara, ranked the painter among the “most famous in Milan” along with Ercole Procaccini, Antonio Busca, and Giuseppe Danedi (G. Campori, Lettere artistiche ined., Modena 1866, p. 125).
The scene is taken from an episode in Ovid's Metamorphoses (3.287-309), which tells of Jupiter’s love for Semele, the daughter of Cadmus, founder of Thebes, and the resulting birth of their son, Bacchus. Following an encounter with the god, Jupiter, in human guise, the mortal Semele becomes pregnant. Upon discovering his infidelity and mad with jealousy, his wife, the goddess, Juno, swears vengeance and, disguised as Semele’s elderly Epidaurian nurse, Beroë, visits the mortals home. There, she persuades Semele to entreat Jupiter to consort with her in the same majesty and splendor as he does his wife. Jupiter warns Semele of the danger of this request but, having sworn to grant her whatever she desired, he is forced to comply. He accordingly appears before her as the god of thunder and, doomed to perish from her own guileless wish, Semele is consumed by lightening, though Jupiter is able to rescue their unborn child, Bacchus.
Here, the artist has elected to illustrate the moment immediately preceding the demise of the unwitting mortal: Jupiter grasps Semele by the shoulder and around her partially swollen womb, as his messenger, the eagle, readies the lightening bolt; from behind a cloud at left, Juno looks on, seemingly impervious to the unfolding drama.
We are grateful to Professor Francesco Frangi for proposing the attribution to Carlo Cornara on the basis of photographs (email communication, 10 February 2018).
The scene is taken from an episode in Ovid's Metamorphoses (3.287-309), which tells of Jupiter’s love for Semele, the daughter of Cadmus, founder of Thebes, and the resulting birth of their son, Bacchus. Following an encounter with the god, Jupiter, in human guise, the mortal Semele becomes pregnant. Upon discovering his infidelity and mad with jealousy, his wife, the goddess, Juno, swears vengeance and, disguised as Semele’s elderly Epidaurian nurse, Beroë, visits the mortals home. There, she persuades Semele to entreat Jupiter to consort with her in the same majesty and splendor as he does his wife. Jupiter warns Semele of the danger of this request but, having sworn to grant her whatever she desired, he is forced to comply. He accordingly appears before her as the god of thunder and, doomed to perish from her own guileless wish, Semele is consumed by lightening, though Jupiter is able to rescue their unborn child, Bacchus.
Here, the artist has elected to illustrate the moment immediately preceding the demise of the unwitting mortal: Jupiter grasps Semele by the shoulder and around her partially swollen womb, as his messenger, the eagle, readies the lightening bolt; from behind a cloud at left, Juno looks on, seemingly impervious to the unfolding drama.
We are grateful to Professor Francesco Frangi for proposing the attribution to Carlo Cornara on the basis of photographs (email communication, 10 February 2018).