Nymphe Liriope bringt ihren Sohn Narcissus zu Tiresias

Giulio Carpioni's painting illustrates the moment from Ovid's Metamorphoses when the nymph Liriope brings her infant son Narcissus to the blind seer Tiresias, who prophesies the child will live to old age only if he never knows himself. Carpioni was drawn repeatedly to the more intimate and melancholic episodes of classical mythology, and this subject — fateful prophecy delivered to an unknowing mother — suited his introspective temperament. The work was painted c.1671, late in his career.

Carpioni arranges the figures in a shallow foreground space reminiscent of antique relief sculpture, a compositional strategy he favoured for mythological scenes. The warm, slightly dusty palette and soft sfumato passages are characteristic. Tiresias's sightless gaze creates an unsettling focal point at the composition's centre.