Destruction of Niobe's Children 16th Century An ardent Royalist during the

An ardent Royalist during the Civil War he fled to France and served in the French army

it is a version of the composition known from works by or derived from Magnasco now in Cardiff

revealing an astonishingly bold mixture of colours in the model's face that would not seem out of place in a twenty-first century portrait

A signature

Destruction of Niobe's Children 16th Century An ardent Royalist during theOnofri was a pupil in Rome of Gaspard Dughet, whose style he imitated with great success. In 1689 he moved to Florence to work for prince Ferdinando de' Medici. The scene shows the moment in Ovid's Metamorphoses VI when Apollo and Diana slay all of Niobe's fourteen children to avenge their mother Leto, to whom Niobe has declared herself superior on account of her fecundity.