Lot 1045 D α

Inscribed verso on the canvas upper left: ‘N. ii2’.
The canvas depicts the story of Jupiter and Io. Io was transformed into a heifer by the god Jupiter to save her from the jealousy of his wife Juno, who is here shown entrusting the faithful Argus with the task of following her. Argus would later be killed by Mercury, who was charged by Jupiter to free Io, and the young woman would finally arrive in Egypt, where, according to legend, she resumed human form and was venerated under the name of Isis.
In 2023, the attribution to Daniel Seiter was confirmed by Dr Guendalina Serafinelli, who identified the work as one of the pieces documented in the 1686 inventory of the collection of Emanuele del Portogallo in Rome.
We would like to thank Dr Sara Pugliese for her assistance in cataloguing this work. Dr Pugliese noted that the canvas is a fine example of Seiter’s style in his mature Roman period, as evident upon comparison with two contemporary works depicting “Roman Charity” and “Lot and his Daughters”, which was presented as a gift to the Accademia di San Luca upon Seiter´s appointment as an academic of merit in 1686. The facial features, the treatment of the drapery, and other elements such as the pearls adorning the figures' heads indeed offer close comparisons.
The painting shows how the artist typically merged the Venetian colorism borrowed by Johann Carl Loth with the classicism he adapted from Roman painters such as Carlo Maratti, Giovanni Lanfranco and Giacinto Brandi.