Latona transferring peasants into frogs - Anton Mirou (1578 Antwerp - 1627)

Oil on copper

Provenance: private collection Belgium

Our painting comes with a certificate by Dr. Luuk Pijl, dated 15/12/2022.

Dr. Luuk Pijl: "The present painting shows many stylistic similarities with the works executed during the 1610's and a date around 1615 is feasible for the beautifully preserved Latona transferring peasants into frogs."

Mirou was a Flemish Baroque landscape painter of the Frankenthal school, he is known for his wooded and rocky landscapes and populated villages.
His early landscapes were influenced by his presumed master Gillis van Coninxloo. These landscapes depict abundant trees or shrubs, craggy mountains, waterfalls and rock formations and complex paths. After circa 1614 Mirou seems to have undergone the influence of another artist of Flemish descent active in Frankenthal called Pieter Schoubroeck. Mirou started from that time to paint village landscapes populated with many figures.

The ancient poet Ovid recounts how Latona, the mother of the twin mythological deities Apollo and Diana, turned a group of inhospitable peasants into frogs. They had stirred up the mud at the bottom of a pond to prevent Latona from drinking from it. The scene takes place in Lycia, a region in Asia Minor (now Turkey but then under Roman rule).