ATTRIBUTED TO FRANCESCO TREVISANI (1656-1746) Selene and the Sleeping Endymion Oil on canvas, 60 x 72cm Bears signature 'Coypel AC' Provenance: Sale, Sotheby's New York, February 1993, Lot 226. In Greek mythology, the moon goddess Selene, regarded as the personification of the Moon itself, is best known for her affair with the beautiful mortal Endymion, the young shepherd who used to sleep on a mountain, and shown here with his sleeping hound. In Roman mythology, Diana has the attributes of Selene and she was mentioned as the goddess who falls in love with Endymion. Both goddesses were regarded as lunar goddesses, except for the fact that in Roman mythology, Diana became a virgin goddess. Selene is commonly depicted with a crescent moon, often accompanied by stars but sometimes, instead of a crescent, a lunar disc is used as in the present work. A version of this painting is in the collection of the Museumlandschaft Hessen, Kassel in Germany. Born in Istria, then part of the Republic of Venice, in 1656, Francesco Trevisani was the son of Antonio Trevisani, an architect, who instructed him in the basics of design. He then studied in Venice under Antonio Zanchi after which he moved to Rome, where he remained for the rest of his life, dying there in 1746. He was strongly influenced by Carlo Maratta, as it is manifest in his masterpiece, the frescoes in San Silvestro in Capite, a commission in which he worked alongside Giuseppe Chiari and Ludovico Gimignani. In Rome, he was favoured with the patronage of Cardinal Chigi, who employed him in several considerable works, and recommended him to the protection of Pope Clement XI, who not only commissioned him to paint one of the prophets in San Giovanni Laterano, but engaged him to decorate the cupola of the cathedral in Urbino. There he represented, in fresco, allegories of the four Quarters of the World. He was employed by the Duke of Modena, in copying the works of Correggio and Parmigianino, and also painted in Brunswick, Madrid, Munich, Stockholm, and Vienna. He became a member of the Academy of Arcadia in 1712.