OsvobozenĂ Andromedy (The Release of Andromeda), Michael Willman (1630 - 1706), after 1682
In this painting, Willman openly avowed to the works of the renowned Flemish master, Peter Paul Rubens. He particularly adopted the type of female figures of full shapes and fine flesh tone. He used several layers of glazes in the painting, thus generally refining the colour scheme, in which pink and grey-blue tones predominate. This work was commissioned by Count Christoph Wenzel Nostitz for his palace in Lobris, Silesia. The subject is based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses: chained to the rock, the royal daughter Andromeda is to become a victim of a sea monster. However, the hero Perseus arrives on the winged horse Pegasus to free her and falls in love with her. Ovid’s text can also be explained as a story of the human soul endangered by the devil in the form of the sea monster, which is liberated by Perseus symbolizing Christ.
It is currently part of the Schwarzenberg Palace gallery in Prague
