Paolo Farinati (Verona 1524-1606)

A study for the fresco at the South wall in the Sala di Persofene, at the Palazzo Giuliari in Verona, showing Persephone and her companions picking flowers before they flee to escape capture by Pluto (De Grazia Bohlin, op. cit., fig. 12). In the drawing the artist closed the composition at the right with a decorative volute, behind which can be seen the legs of Pluto as he carries off a captive, leg again visible. Until they were published by De Grazia Bohlin in 1982, the frescoes were virtually unknown (although they are mentioned in the literature and 19th-Century guidebooks) due to the fact that they were only rediscovered in 1965. While no documentation for the commission survives, De Grazia Bohlin has argued that they can be dated before or around 1573.