Anachronisms
With a prestigious Paris tournament just around the corner, it's worth remembering that the origins of tennis date back to the Jeu de Paume in the 13th century. It wasn't until the 16th century that the first rackets appeared. At the time, the game was quite dangerous, given the hardness of the balls, made of very tight leather, and it is said that this was how Caravaggio killed his opponent during a game in Rome in 1606, before fleeing.
In his 1561 version of the Metamorphoses, Italian poet and translator Giovanni Andrea dell'Anguillara added an anachronistic game of tennis to the discus throw. It was probably this translation of Ovid that Tiépolo had at his fingertips before painting The Death of Hyacinth (1752). Housed in Madrid's Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, the huge canvas features rackets, a ball and a net in place of the discus in the lower left-hand corner.
So ... traduttore traditore? Or aggiornamento? There are some works of art with delightful anachronisms, both for the eyes and the mind.
Clara Pagnussatt
