Two lovers flee in the moonlit night, as a sailing ship awaits them in the distance, ready to cast off towards new adventures. The man is dressed like a Roman warrior of antiquity, with an elegant plumed helmet, while she is still in déshabillé and is leaving her room a bit reluctantly. The scene, painted with quick, short brush strokes that well represent the fugaciousness of the moment, is presented as a theatrical set with a large red curtain just pulled aside by a flying cupid, a symbol of the passion that unites the two young lovers. It is a timeless story, as only the ancient writers and painters knew how to tell: the couple is clearly Paris and Helen, whose love caused the outbreak of the Trojan War. Helen, daughter of Zeus and Leda, known far and wide for her incomparable beauty, married Menelaus and became queen of Sparta. On a diplomatic mission for the king of Troy, Paris saw Helen and managed to seduce her with Venus’s

aid, and to abduct her when Menelaus was momentarily absent. The abduction triggered the war with Troy.

Francesco Botti depicts this scene with great pathos and mischievous interpretative languor, encapsulating in a single image a night of love and the abduction at the same time. The style and the features of the composition are unequivocally typical of the Florentine painter, who apprenticed first with his father Giacinto and later with one of the most important Tuscan painters at the time, Simone Pignoni. It was common practice for young painters to travel and sojourn in other

cities, and among Francesco Botti’s travels, Venice must have influenced him enough that he sought to imitate the characteristics of a few painters like Sebastiano Mazzoni and Antonio Carneo, creators of atmospheric scenes bathed in or dusky twilight or moonlight. Our painting can be placed in the early part of the painter’s prime, and must be considered one of the greatest achievements in his oeuvre, and of non-religious Florentine painting of the second half of the 17th century. The figure of the woman can be compared with the Sophonisba in the Museo Civico di Montepulciano and the Veronica in the Royal Windsor Collection. The figure of Paris can be juxtaposed with one in a painting depicting Venus and Mars which belong to the Florentine galleries but is on loan to Palazzo di Montecitorio in Rome.