Aurora and Tithonus, c.1705 (oil on canvas)

Aurora, goddess of the dawn, fell in love with Tithonus, son of Laomedon and brother of Priam. She gained immortality for him but not youthfulness; hence he is shown here lying on the ground as an old man. Aurora floats above him, half naked on clouds, wearing a crown of roses and holding a chaplet of flowers in her upraised right hand. The three winged putti surrounding her hold a flaring torch, a basket of flowers and an urn; symbolising the dawn's light, its generative power and the dew. The slightly ponderous style of this work is suggestive of Ricci's work before his English visit, c. 1700-10. The subject of Aurora occurs in the main ceiling fresco by Ricci in the Palazzo Pitti, which is often wrongly identified as Venus and Adonis; that Aurora is the subject is shown by the attributes of the putti, which are the same as in this work. The painting was cleaned in 1972.