ANTONIO MARIA VASSALLO (GENOA C. 1620-C. 1664/72 MILAN)

Antonio Maria Vassallo studied painting in Genoa under the Flemish artist Vincent Malo. Vassallo is best known for his mythological scenes and rustic pastorals. The present painting depicts a scene from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, in which Medea — moved by her husband Jason’s request to take years from his life to add them instead to that of his father, Aseon — performs a blood ritual to restore Aseon’s youth (VII, 159-293).

The attribution of this painting to Vassallo was proposed by Anna Orlando on account of its similarities with a painting of the same subject in a Milanese private collection. A copy of her expertise is available upon request.