Giovanni Domenico Ferretti
Italian, 1692 - 1768Aurora and the Hours of Sunrise, ca. 1730s
On view
Oil on canvas
Dimensions11 1/4 × 17 3/4 in. (28.6 × 45.1 cm)
Museum purchase with funds from the Jill Ford Murray Irrevocable Trust in memory of her parents, Carlotta Espy Ford and George Ross Ford, Jr., and her grandparents, Grace Miller Ford and George Ross Ford, 2015.60
Giovanni Domenico Ferretti is perhaps the most distinguished Florentine painter of the 18th century, although he apparently trained in Imola and in Bologna before establishing himself in his native city. There he was to receive a succession of both ecclesiastical and domestic fresco commissions, as well as paint numerous canvas paintings, both large and small, in all genres.
This sketch for a ceiling decoration either destroyed or never realized depicts Aurora, the Roman goddess of the dawn. Every morning, according to the myth, she rose from her bed and accompanied Apollo, her brother the sun god, ushering in the dawn. In this sketch, she is shown in a chariot being pulled by two winged figures. The other maidens surrounding her are the "hours of sunrise."
