1348 - ANTONIO ZANCHI

ANTONIO ZANCHI Prometheus Bound, c. 1670 Oil on canvas, 187x144 cm Prometheus was a Titan who, to protect mortals from the cold and weakness, stole a spark of divine fire from Hephaestus’s forge (or from the sun chariot), hid it inside a hollow staff, and gave it to mankind. Along with fire, he taught humanity the arts of survival, writing, mathematics, medicine, astronomy, and metallurgy. To take revenge on Prometheus and humankind, Zeus ordered the creation of Pandora, the first woman, bearer of the jar filled with evils and hopes. Prometheus was captured and chained to a rock in the Caucasus Mountains. Every day, an eagle (Aithon) devoured his liver, which regenerated overnight, making his torment eternal. The Titan was finally freed by Hercules with Zeus’s consent. Antonio Zanchi represents one of the greatest expressions of tenebrism and chiaroscuro naturalism in 17th-century Venetian painting. From the very beginning of his career, the artist’s style stood out for its use of rich, textured brushstrokes combined with decidedly bold perspectives and foreshortening. An example of this mastery is the 1666 work for the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, in which Zanchi succeeds in evoking with extraordinary intensity the drama and tragic effects of the plague. The canvas analyzed here was painted after that masterpiece and can be dated to around 1670. Bibliography: See P. Zampetti, “Antonio Zanchi,” in *I pittori bergamaschi dal XIII al XIX secolo*. The Seventeenth Century, Vol. IV, Bergamo, Poligrafiche Bolis, 1987, pp. 419–707 B. Andreose, F. Gambarin, Antonio Zanchi “pittor celeberrimo,” Este, 2009.