Perseus and Andromeda

In May 1986 an auction house in Munich sold a large canvas of Perseus and Andromeda as French school, probably 18th century. Three years later the Société des Amis du Louvre, the museum's society of friends, bought it from a gallery in Monte Carlo and gave it to the Louvre. By then it had been recognised as the picture Pierre Mignard painted for the Grand Condé, the prince and general who had retired to his château at Chantilly. Mignard was paid 4,400 livres for it on 11 July 1679, while the sculptor who carved its frame received 300. The painting was still at Chantilly in 1709, valued in the inventory made after the death of Condé's son, and then its trail is lost until the Munich sale.

Mignard chose a quieter moment than the fight with the sea monster. Following Ovid, he paints the rescue just over, as Andromeda's parents, King Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia, thank Perseus and welcome him as their daughter's husband, while Cupid unfastens her chains. Writing in 1730, Mignard's biographer said nobody could see the tears running from Andromeda's eyes without being moved. X-rays show that at some point the canvas was folded in four, and the paint has flaked away along the creases.