Sacchi, Ritratto di Pasqualinii ed Apollo (1641), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Speranza



Allegory attained a sort of peak in the self-congratulatory portrait the singer Passqualini commisioned from Sacchi.

The singer is depicted in the stage costume.

Apollo crowns him with a wreath of laurel in honour of his achievement, while in the background Marsyas, who had unsuccessfully challenged Apollo to a musical contest, is shown bound to a tree awaiting his punishment.

The compliment is that the singer Pasqualini -- a favourite of the Barberini family -- had accomplished what Marsyas had not been able to.