Achilles on Skyros

For centuries, schoolboys learning Latin read the Achilleid, an unfinished poem by the Roman poet Statius about the youth of Achilles, so the episode in this panel was familiar to anyone who had been to school. Thetis, the hero's mother, knows that her son will die if he goes to Troy. She dresses him as a girl and hides him among the daughters of King Lycomedes on the island of Skyros. Ulysses comes looking for him with gifts for the girls and slips weapons in among them. The young man gives himself away the moment he reaches for the arms.

Giolfino, who often painted stories from ancient history and myth, played the scene for laughs. The museum points to the young hero with his skirts fallen around his feet and his manhood conspicuous under red hose. It dates the panel to around 1520 to 1525.