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Salvator Rosa (Naples 1615 – 1673 Rome)
Glaucus and Scylla
Oil on canvas
87.6 x 74.3cm.
Provenance
With Wildenstein, New York
Charles Parsons, Washington University Gallery of Art, St Louis, Missouri, USA, until sold,
Exhibited
Sarasota, Florida, The Ringing Museum, Baroque Painters of Naples, March 4 – April 4, 1961.
Worcester, MA. Worcester Art Museum, Woman as Heroine, September 15 – October 22, 1972,
No. 28.
St. Louis, Mo. Washington University Gallery of Art, Charles Parsons Collection of Paintings: Portrait
of a St. Louis Collector, December 12, 1976 – January 30, 1977.
St. Louis, Mo., Washington University Gallery of Art, Summer Selections, May 24 – August 31,
1979.
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St. Louis, Mo. Washington University Gallery of Art, Centennial Exhibition, May 15 – October 11,
1981.
St Louis, Mo. Washington University Gallery of Art, Old Masters, May 15 – August 21, 1983.
Salvator Rosa, His Etchings and Engravings after His Works. Catalogue of the exhibition, Sarasota,
Florida Museum of Art. November 4 – December 5, 1971, no.21.
Literature
“Baroque Painters of Naples”, Ringling Museum Billetin, March, 1961, No.2, p.27, no.24
L.Salerno, Salvator Rosa, 1963, no.61.
Gazette des Beaux-Arts, February, 1970, No.1213. Illustrated, p.65.
L.Salerno, L’opera complete di Salvator Rosa, 1975, p.100. cat. No. 194 bis.
R.W. Wallace, The Etchings of Salvator Rosa, 1979, p.253, under cat. No. 101a (as a copy)
This dramatic and emotive painting by the Italian Baroque painter Salvator Rosa, perfectly
encapsulates his fame as an ‘unorthodox and extravagant’ proto-Romantic1.
He was one of the least conventional artists of 17th-century Italy, quick tempered and
flamboyant, and was adopted as a hero by painters of the Romantic movement in the later 18th
and early 19th centuries. Rosa's training took place in Naples, where he was deeply inspired by
the work of the Spanish artist Juesepe de Ribera. In the present painting, Ribera’s influence over
the younger artist can be seen in Rosa’s emulation of the expressive, loose brushstrokes, the
emotive power and the sensory details of the scene, all enhanced by the dramatic effects of
tenebrism.
1
Wittkower, p. 325
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The subject tells the tragic Ovidan story of Glaucus and Scylla, described in Metamorphosis.
Glaucus, a fisherman who was born mortal but turned into a sea-god upon eating a magical herb,
fell in love with the beautiful nymph Scylla who swam in the waters where he dwelled. However,
Scylla was appalled by his appearance and fled to land when he tried to approach her.
“She wandered there naked of garments on the thirsty sand; but, tired, by chance she found a
lonely bay, and cooled her limbs with its enclosing waves. Then suddenly appeared a newly made
inhabitant of that deep sea, whose name was Glaucus. Cleaving through the blue sea waves, he
swam towards her. His shape had been transformed but lately for this watery life, while he was
living at Anthedon in Euboea.—now he is lingering from desire for her he saw there and speaks
whatever words he thought might stop her as she fled from him. Yet still she fled from him, and
swift through fear, climbed to a mountain top above the sea.”2
Ovid’s erotic description of Syclla wading into the water, and Glaucus’ lust for her, provided a
rich source of inspiration for artists of the Baroque. As did the description of Glaucus himself,
which appealed in particular to Salvator Rosa’s fascination with fantastical and nightmarish
images.
“doubtful whether he might be a god or monster, wondered at his flowing hair which covered
his broad shoulders and his back,—and marvelled at the colour of his skin and at his waist
merged into a twisted fish.”3
There have been many representations of this scene by artists (Fig 2 & Fig 3), however our
painting is noteworthy for the intense drama which he conveys, through both the composition
and his signature expressive handling of the subject.
2
3
Ovid, Metamorphosis, Book 14 (translation)
ibid
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Fig 1: Jacques Dumont, Glaucus and Scylla, 1726, Musée
Fig 2: Bartholomäus Spranger, Glaucus and Scylla, 1582,
des beaux-arts de Troyes.
Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna
Rosa was interested in witchcraft, and, influenced by Northern prints, depicted many scenes
exploring this concept, including the ambition ‘Witches at their Incantations’, 1646, in the National
Gallery, London. The story of Glaucus and Syclla therefore, as well as the potential for a
provocative and dynamic scene, would have held an extra dimension of interest for Rosa. In
Ovid’s story, the desperate Glaucus turns to the witch, or enchantress, Circe, and pleads with her
to use magic to make Syclla fall in love with him;
“If you have known a power of incantation, I implore you now repeat that incantation here, with
sacred lips—If herbs have greater power, use the tried power of herbs. But I would not request a
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cure—the healing of this wound. Much better than an end of pain, let her share, and feel with
me my impassioned flame.”4
However Circe, ‘more quick than any other to burn with passion's flame’, wanted Glaucus’ love
for herself. When he declared he would never love anyone but Syclla, Circe flew into a jealous
rage. Not wanting to hurt the one she loved, she turned her wrath upon Syclla, using her magic
to poison the pool where Syclla bathed. She was transformed into a hideous sea monster with
growling dogs for legs, terrifying even herself;
“In vain she offers from herself to run.
And drags about her what she strives to shun5”
Salvator Rosa has chosen from this story the moment of Syclla fleeing from Glaucus; a subject
which provides potential for powerful visual impact. The image of the desire fuelled pursuit was
a popular one in Baroque art, perhaps most famously executed by Bernini in his life-sized marble
sculpture ‘Daphne and Apollo’, in the Galleria Borghese in Rome (Fig 3). In our painting, the
excitement and terror of the moment is enhanced by the dramatic posture of Syclla’s body,
lurching forward in dynamic motion, leaving her bare leg trailing behind, and her flowing hair.
Sensory details, in particular Glaucus’ fingers, exaggerated in their crookedness, pressing into the
skin of Syclla’s buttock, reminiscent of Bernini’s ‘The Abduction of Proserpina’ (Fig 4), in which
Proserpina’s flesh yields under the pressure of Pluto’s fingers, enhances the tactility and eroticism
of the scene.
4
5
ibid
Metamorphoses XIV.51-2
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Fig 4: Gian Lorenzo Bernini,
Fig 5: Gian Lorenzo Bernini, The Abduction of Proserpina, Galleria Borghese in
Apollo and Daphne, Galleria
Rome
Borghese in Rome
This painting is an autograph replica of the signed painting in the Musée des Beaux-Arts,
Brussels6. Another version is in the collection of Russel Lynes, New York.
A signed etching of this subject by Rosa, with some differences and in reverse to the painted
versions, was executed in circa 1661. The engraved Glaucus and Scylla (Fig 5) was apparently
produced with a pendant, showing Apollo and the Cumaen Sibyl, also dateable to circa 16617.
Scholars agree that it seems likely that Rosa’s etching of the composition preceded the painted
versions, a not uncommon practice for the artist. Rosa developed a number of his most
successful and ambitious compositions first as etchings, subsequently turning them into
paintings.
6
7
Salerno, Salvator Rosa, 1963, p.128, cat. No. 61, illustrated
Salerno, op.cit, 1975, p.94, no.128a
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Fig 5: Salvator Rosa, Glaucus and Scylla, 1661, Etching and Drypoint, 35 x 22.8cm
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