Andromeda

In the myth, Andromeda was a princess of Ethiopia, chained to a rock by the sea as an offering to a sea monster after her mother Cassiopeia had offended the sea gods with a boast. The hero Perseus flew in, killed the beast and set her free. Painters usually showed the rescue. Francesco Furini, in Florence, painted the princess alone, with no hero and no monster, her pale body against dark rocks, blue drapery blowing round her, her sad face framed by thick hair with a thin circlet of small pearls.

He painted the subject several times. The version held to be entirely his own is in the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg, and it probably matches the one described by Filippo Baldinucci, who wrote the lives of the Florentine artists later in the 17th century. This canvas, dated between about 1637 and 1645, is thought to have been painted with help from his workshop. A scholar has also noticed that in the Hermitage picture the ochre cloth round her hips was painted together with the rest, while here it seems to have been added afterwards. The same writer suggests the unusual pose may come from Eve in an engraving by Marcantonio Raimondi after a design by Raphael.

The Corsini inventory of 1750 lists the picture simply as a half-length nude by Furini, received as a gift.