Aeneas on the Bank of the River Styx

1648 · Private collection

mythological

This painting is one of Pietro Testa's last works. Its story is drawn from Book 6 of The Aeneid. Aeneas, a hero of the Trojan War, deviates from his quest to establish a new kingdom (which would eventually become Rome) because he wants to go down to the Underworld to see his father Anchises, who recently died.

About the Artist

Pietro Testa

1611 – 1650

Italian engraver and painter active in Rome. He trained with Domenichino and was employed by Nicolas Poussin 's patron Cassiano dal Pozzo to make antiquarian drawings, but his bizarre imagination brings him closer in spirit to his more Romantic contemporaries such as Castiglione and Rosa. His paintings are rare and he is better known as an etcher. Testa died by drowning, and it was rumoured that he killed himself.

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