Uffizi Acquires a 'Lost' Passerotti
February 18 2021
Picture: ansa.it
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Uffizi Gallery in Florence have acquired a painting of The Enigma of Homer (also known as Homer's Riddle or Homer and the Fishermen) by Bartolomeo Passerotti (1529-1592). The painting was previously thought to have been lost. During the sixteenth century it was recorded in the collection of scholar Giovanni Battista Deti, and was later owned by the seventeenth century Florentine senator Carlo Torrigiani. As it happens it was recently unearthed in the collection of his descendants.
The subject matter relates to a Homeric myth, where the ancient philosopher asks a group of fishermen whether they had brought in a good catch. They reply to him with the following riddle "What we caught, we threw away, what we didn't catch, we kept." Can you guess what they're talking about?
