The Rage of Achilles

Villa Valmarana sits just outside Vicenza, and in 1757 Count Giustino Valmarana handed its guest wing to the most sought-after fresco painter in Europe. Tiepolo gave one whole room to Homer's Iliad, and for its largest wall he chose a single charged instant. Agamemnon has just seized Achilles' war prize, and Achilles, enraged, begins to draw his sword to kill him on the spot. The goddess Athena, whom no one else present can see, has flown down and caught him by the hair from behind. Look for her hand still gripping his hair and the blade stopped halfway out of its sheath.