[Aurora and Tithonus by Francesco de Nura ]
Francesco de Mura (21 April 1696 – 19 August 1782) was an Italian neo-Classicist painter of the late-Baroque period, active mainly in Naples and Turin. He was a pupil of Francesco Solimena, then later Domenico Viola, where he met his contemporary, Mattia Preti.
- While still in his teens, De Mura painted frescoes in San Nicola alla Carità in Naples (1715); and ten canvases of the Virtues and an Adoration of the Magi for the Church of Santa Maria Donnaromita (1728).
- His other works include frescoes of the Adoration of the Magi in the apsidal dome of the Church of the Nunziatella (1732).
- De Mura also painted portraits.
About the painting – Aurora and Tithonus.
Aurora was the Goddess of Dawn and was inspired by the love of mortals. Her favourite being Tithonus, son of Laomedon, King of Troy. Aurora stole him away and prevailed on Jupiter to grant him immortality, but forgetting to have youth joined in her wish, realised to later, to her great mortification that he was growing old, instead of remaining young and youthful.
When Tithonus’s hair turned white, she left him. However he was still allowed to remain in their palace. After a while Tithonus lost the power to use his limbs and Aurora locked him up in a chamber where his feeble voice was sometimes heard.
- Finally she turned him into a grasshopper.
As you do!
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