Narcissus At La Fontaine. Oil On Panel. 19th Century.

Narcissus at the Fountain. Oil on panel. 19th century. Oil on panel depicting a wooded landscape and architectural elements with a strong classicist influence (relief wall, garlanded vase, sculptures, fountain) in which two figures appear. A young man dressed in a red tunic that reveals his torso and who seems to be looking at his reflection in the fountain basin is accompanied by a winged boy who holds a bow and makes the gesture of taking an arrow from the quiver he carries on his back with his right hand. The painting represents the classical myth of Narcissus. According to classical mythology, Narcissus was a very handsome young man who cruelly rejected the love of the nymph Echo, and who was therefore condemned by Nemesis to fall in love with his own image. Thus, upon seeing his reflection in a fountain or spring (many representations show him crouching on the banks of a lake; note the particularity of the present work of showing an architectural and not a "natural" fountain), he was absorbed and ended up committing suicide, ending up transformed into the flower that bears his name or emerging from the place where his body had fallen. -Dimensions: 99x5.5x71 cms / int: 81.5x59.5 cm