This work is an elaborated copy of a mysterious ancient rite described on a sculpture in the strange antiquarian romance Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (Dream of Poliphilus) which was published in Venice in 1499.
Garofalo was probably trained by Boccaccini of Cremona, who was in Ferrara from 1497 to 1500. According to Vasari, Garofalo twice visited Rome, and knowledge of classical art and recent Roman painting is apparent in some of his work. Even so, and unlike Dosso, Garofalo appears cautious and old-fashioned in his style and technique. In this he resembles his lesser contemporaries in Ferrara, Ludovico Mazzolino, who also specialised in small-scale religious works, and Ortolano, with whose paintings those of Garofalo are sometimes confused.
[Oil on canvas, 128.3 x 185.4 cm]
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