Deucalion and Pyrrha (Beccafumi)

Deucalion and Pyhrra is an oil painting on panel of c. 1520–1525 by the Italian Renaissance painter Domenico Beccafumi.

The work, of unknown English provenance, is part of a series of panels for chests and espaliers that Beccafumi had to paint during his career.

The subject, taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses, is linked to the legend of Deucalion and Pyrrha which symbolizes the couple's role in the foundation of a new lineage: a theme particularly suitable for a chest or in any case for a wedding decoration.

Attributed to the Sienese master in 1920, since then it has always been in the artist's catalogue, juxtaposing it with other similar scenes, such as Hercules at the Crossroads in the Bardini Museum, and the Rape of Europa, in the Guarini del Taja collection in Siena.

The rapid and nuanced strokes and the narrative vivacity are influenced by the Raphaelesque examples of the Vatican Loggia or the Frieze room of Villa Farnesina.