Renaissance wooden panel with mythological scene, XVIth century

"The Abduction of Helen"

Probably originating from a cassone, this wooden sculpted Renaissance relief represents the famous Greek mythology episode in which the Troyan prince Paris abducts the beautiful Helen of Sparta, unleashing thus the Trojan War, described by Homer in his Iliad.

The anonymous author of this panel is directly inspired by the engraving executed around 1520 by the Italian Marcantonio Raimondi (Argini(?), c.1480–before 1534, Bologna(?), after a design by Raphael. The print by Raimondi es logically more square-shaped than our relief and showes besides other characters and details omitted here: the sculptor, limited by the long format of the wooden support, took from Raimondi the main figures, treated with great expressiveness and anatomical detail, integrating in addition in the background other scenes with boats, soldiers, horsemen and architecture elements. Thus, the artist managed contextualizing the main scene, in a very narrative composition characterized by the horror vacui, that reflects perfectly the confusion and the dramatic and violent instant of the scene.