Assicurazioni Generali S.p.A. - La danza dei figli di Alcinoo (Dance of the sons of Alcinous)

Created as part of a contrasting set with the bas relief La morte di Priamo [“Death of Priam”], one depicting joy and the other pain, this bas relief draws its inspiration from Canto VIII of Homer’s Odyssey. In the centre Halios and Laodamas, sons of Alcinous, king of the Phaeacians, are dancing while holding aloft a veil that arcs over them. They dance to music played on the zither by the blind Demodocus seated on the left behind a group of celebrating figures, while on the opposite side Alcinous is shown sitting on the throne with his wife Arete and his daughter Nausicaa on either side as he gazes at Ulysses standing on the far right. Canova created the works using motherforms, moulds whose internal contours determine the external form of the plaster casts that emerge from them.