Latona and Peasants (Latona Protecting her Children)

In this painting with a mythological theme, after being seduced by Zeus, Latona flees in fear of the anger of Zeus's wife Juno, with her twins Apollo and Diana. When the shepherds do not allow her to drink, she turns them into frogs.

Latona kneels on the pond shore while holding her two infants in her arms. She raises her right arm towards three peasants standing up to their waist in the water. They prevented her from drinking the water by stirring it up and now they are gradually being turned into frogs. The deep space in the lowland landscape is enclosed by hills. All of the shapes are turned toward the Goddess’s raised hand.

Three replicas of this painting are currently known of. One of them, which features the same width but is the least similar in terms of artistry, was auctioned in London in 2006. The painting in the Archbishop’s Chateau and Gardens in Kroměříž, has been known for a long time and is considered the original. The Slovak National Gallery painting was designated as the work of Carracci at the beginning of the 20th century.

Hieronym Trudon, (a graphic artist of French origin, documented around 1680) and Cesare Fantetti (1673–1575 documented in Rome) reproduced a scene identical to that of the Bratislava version in the form of their graphic work; this indicates that Annibale Carracci was the creator of the template which was located in Naples in the seat of the della Rocca princes. The connection of the graphic work and the painting was later documented by specific works.

The painting, The Goddess Latona among Four Shepherds Turning into Frogs in a Gold Plated Frame by Annibale Carracci is mentioned in the inventory of the Doria-Pamphilii collection in Rome around 1684. Bishop Karl LiechtensteinCastelcorno probably acquired it before 1691. The Bratislava version was reproduced a decade earlier in
Naples.
 

Zuzana Ludiková ● LUDIKOVÁ, Zuzana - BURAN, Dušan. Talianska maľba = Italian Painting. Bratislava : Slovenská národná galéria, 2013. 242 strán. ISBN 9788080591748.