The present painting, preceded by a bozzetto striking in design and colour, depicts the fascinating figuration of the myth that sees Jupiter forced into an oath obliging him to show himself in the aspect of god to Semele, which would have caused the death of his beloved, is the work of the late activity of the great painter Gaetano Gandolfi, one of the most outstanding protagonists of Italian artistic culture of the second half of the eighteenth century, famous and celebrated not only in Europe but also in distant Russia and America.

Private collection, Italy.