Inside of the luxurious Barberini Palace in Rome there are many art works that are useful to know about some aspects of the ancient Greek and roman mythology. But sometimes the myth was used to hide something more...

The museum at the Barberini Palace is recommended for those who want to appreciate not only the art of the XVI and XVII century.  Walking in the halls of the museum, in fact, you really can travel in time and space, seeing with his own eyes mythological episodes immortalized by painters of centuries ago. Here, for example, you have a picture of Bigio, a renaissance artist, in which are represented the three Parcae, who were the custodians of life and Destiny. Only they can decide, or accommodate, the Destiny, and nobody, not even the gods themselves, they can go against their will. In particular, you can not escape the Fate, a force so powerful and inevitable that even the gods cannot do other than accept.

Bigio, following the style of his time, represents the three Parcae as three young, naked and beautiful girls, with the build massive and the muscles in full view. A way to underline the perfection of the human body and, consequently, the perfection of Nature. In spite of all the Parcae move gracefully on the canvas, being in harmony with the background and the surrounding environment. On the right there is Cloto, with a red thread, the symbol of love that generates. On the left we have Lachesis with a white thread, which emphasizes the purity of life. While at the centre there is Atropo, holding a pair of scissors, capable of breaking the thread of life (Death). To strengthen the concept, a skeleton in the background watches the scene.

The poses, the colors and setting are useful to emphasize the three central figures, who stand on the other. Note that, according to other versions of the myth, the three Parcae, may also be represented as a little girl, a woman and a very old woman (the three Ages). A picture rich in symbolism, a pictorial work, that represents the ancient mythology of which the artists and scholars of the Renaissance did, literally, for being able to return to splendor, the style, the perfection of the greco-roman world that was the basis of the cultural explosion, and not only that we know as the Renaissance. But there is something more in this canvas by Bigio at the Barberini Palace of Rome, something that allow us to know more about the relationship between art and alchemy.

We know that it represents the famous process that is able to transform the lead into the gold, but this changement is just the phisycal way to represents another kind of passage, something that is more spirituale and individual: from the death to the life, from the darkness of the end of our days to a bright rebirth. Try to see Cloto on the right, that is the personification of the generatrix strenght of the life. After her, in the centre, we have Atropo who decides about our death, in order to represent, in some degree, the Death. And then we have Lachesi with her white thread, who symbolizes that new pure life after the purification from the death. An alchemical process that was dispayed by Bigio through his art and colors, but also thanks to some characters that easily make easier the comprehension of this canvas in an alchemical way. For example on the left, between Lachesi and Atropo, we have a black female figure having four breasts, that obviously symbolized life. But her black skin is a specific connection to the nigredo, the first step of the alchemical process that indicated the material death. And then between Atropo and Cloto we have a bearded figure who is Crono, the personification of the Time. Thanks to it we can have this passage, from death to life, from the end to a new rebirth. Could you believe that an "ordinary" canvas in the Barberini Palace in Rome could have so many meanings? And imagine it is not the only surprise and beauty of this museum: try to click here to discover something more about it...