Oil on canvas. Signed lower right "J. Dupont da Velzquez".
It is a copy of the famous masterpiece by Diego Velazquez, created around 1657 and preserved in the Prado Museum.
Until the mid-20th century the painting was entitled "The tapestry factory of Santa Isabella in Madrid\": only in 1948, in fact, the studies of the art historian and critic Diego Angulo Íñiguez made it possible to recognize a relationship between the painting and the ancient Greek myth of Arachne.
In the scene, in the foreground some spinners work in an unadorned room poorly lit by a soft light reflected from the environment behind them.
There are five women: on the left, in dim light, the older one who operates the wheel of the stripper, in front of her, on the right, in full light, a young girl who collects the thread in the spindle; they are the representations respectively of Athena, still hidden under a false guise, and the human Arachne, during their competition.
The other three women simply act as an outline, the central one is just a static silhouette.
In the background, central and illuminated by a powerful beam of light emerging from the left, as well as enlivened by the bright colors of the tapestry and the clothes, the scene of the revelation of the goddess to the woman.
Compared to the original, this copy, although faithful in the figures and details described, is made with more nuanced brushstrokes and less defined contours as well as with less bright colours.
The work is presented in a frame.
.png)
PLATINUM Seller in Milano, Italy
