Gregorio de Ferrari was one of the central figures in the transition from the high Baroque in Genoa to the lighter, more luminous sensibility of the eighteenth century. Trained under Domenico Fiasella, and deeply influenced by his study of Correggio in Parma,  Gregorio later worked closely with Domenico Piola, whose daughter he married. He developed an original style characterised by elongated figures, animated draperies and a dynamic conception of space. His son Lorenzo, raised in the same family workshop, absorbed his father’s style deeply while gradually introducing greater clarity and a more measured rhythm.

The two paintings were conceived as pendants and depict two celebrated episodes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. In Gregorio’s Abduction of Deianira, agitation and momentum prevail; in Lorenzo’s Abduction of Europa, the rhythm is more restrained. Seen together, the works reveal the close dialogue between father and son and the shift from fully Baroque dynamism to a lighter, more distinctly eighteenth-century sensibility.