Cesare Ghirardi, Myrrha, oil painting on canvas, 1869



















Oil painting on canvas by Cesare Ghirardi depicting Myrrha. Dated (1869) and signed at lower left. It was exhibited at the Società Promotrice di Belle Arti in Turin. The myth tells that Myrrh, daughter of King Cinira, falls hopelessly in love with her father as punishment for her lack of devotion to the goddess Aphrodite. Through stratagems she manages to lie with him several nights until she is discovered. The king begins to pursue her in order to kill her but the girl asks the gods for help, who decide to save her by turning her into a tree from which a fragrant resin, myrrh, emerges. After nine months Adonis, the fruit of this incestuous relationship, emerges from the bark.
ID: 60545-1671528565-53047