The painting refers to a Spanish literary work La Fábula de Polifemo y Galatea and Ovid's Metamorphoses.[1] It was commissioned by French banker Jean Pointel[2] and depicts characters from Greek mythology. In the foreground pictured are semi-nude nymphs watched by satyrs hidden in the nearby bushes. On green fields behind them people listen to music played on a flute by the CyclopsPolyphemus, who appears to be blended into rocky mountains in the background.
History
In 1722 the painting was acquired for the Spanish king Philip V by Andrea Procaccini, a student of Carlo Maratta.[3] Later, it was part of the collection of a French marquess who sold it in 1772 to a Russian prince, with the help of Denis Diderot, in order to pay a gambling debt.[4] It is now located in Saint Petersburg as part of the Hermitage Museum's collection.[5]
