Boreas Abducts Orithyia

This plaster relief illustrates an uncommon scene from classical mythology: the abduction of Orithyia, daughter of Erechtheus, king of Attica. According to Ovid's Metamorphoses (VI, 675–701), after King Erechtheus declined Boreas' request for Orithyia's hand, Boreas—the winged god of the north wind—abducted her and took her to Thrace. There, she subsequently bore him several children (Barberini 1991, 64). The god, distinguished by his long beard and extended wings, is shown lifting Orithyia, who displays a fearful expression and has her arms open as she attempts to escape his forceful hold. Below the clouds supporting Orithyia as she is about to be carried away by Boreas, Cupid is depicted lying on his back, holding an arrow, with his quiver placed on the ground. The background is predominantly characterized by horizontal and parallel grooves formed using a toothed tool, with no discernible landscape elements present.
Due to the distinctive nature of its material, this piece, relocated to its present setting in 1920 after being transferred from the Museo di Castel Sant'Angelo, should be regarded as a cast derived from an as yet unidentified terracotta relief. As indicated by Maria Giulia Barberini (1991), the work originates from a model sculpted by the French artist Pierre-Étienne Monnot, who was a prominent figure within the Roman artistic community from the late seventeenth to the early eighteenth century. According to the scholar, the marble altarpieces in the Capocaccia chapel at Santa Maria della Vittoria, specifically the Adoration of the Shepherds and the Rest on the Flight into Egypt, dated 1699 (Bacchi 1996, 826), serve as physical points of comparison with the plaster cast in question. Nevertheless, an examination of the facial features of the principal figures does not yield definitive evidence for attributing the creation of the lost clay model to the French artist, as previously observed by Cristiano Giometti (2011, 85, no. 81). Other relief works by Monnot, including the terracotta pieces created for Don Livio Odescalchi (currently housed in the Musée du Louvre, Paris; Bacchi 1996, 826) and the large stone narratives commissioned by Landgrave Charles of Hesse for the Marmorbad pavilion in Kassel (Bacchi 1996, 827), do not exhibit any significant resemblance to the plaster cast under discussion. Accordingly, the originator of the model should likely be identified among other artists active in Rome during the early eighteenth century, corresponding with the emergence of the Baroque style exemplified by Monnot. Giometti (2011, 85, n. 81) had previously arrived at these conclusions, while acknowledging the possibility of influence from the French sculptor's workshop.

Luca Annibali

Entry published on 16 October 2025

Good.

Rome, Museo Nazionale di Castel Sant’Angelo, 1920;
Rome, Museo Nazionale di Palazzo Venezia, 1920.

Rome, Museo Nazionale di Palazzo Venezia, Sculture in terracotta del Barocco romano. Bozzetti e modelli del Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia, December 9, 1991–January 31, 1992.

Barberini, in Barberini Maria Giulia (a cura di), Sculture in terracotta del Barocco romano. Bozzetti e modelli del Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia, catalogo della mostra (Roma, Museo del Palazzo di Venezia, 9 dicembre 1991-31 gennaio 1992), Roma 1991, p. 64;
Bacchi, in Bacchi Andrea (a cura di), con la collaborazione di Zanuso Susanna, Scultura del ’600 a Roma, Milano 1996, pp. 826-827;
Giometti Cristiano (a cura di), Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia. 4. Sculture in terracotta, Roma 2011, p. 85, n. 81.