The main sources of the myth, among many, are The Epitome of Apollodorus and Life of Theseus by Plutarch. Daughter of Minos and Pasiphae, Ariadne, passionately in love with Theseus, invents the famous strategy that allows the hero to escape the Labyrinth after slaying the Minotaur. In order to escape the wrath of Minos, Ariadne subsequently flees with Theseus, who abandons her asleep on the island of Naxos. Dionysius appears with his entourage, marries her and takes her to Olympus. Her wedding present was a golden diadem, the work of Hefesto, subsequently transformed into the constellation of Ariadne. Probably referring to this last metamorphosis, Pittoni replaces the headband with a crown of stars. There are two other autographed versions of the Masp’s picture – Dionysus and Ariadne – at Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart and at the Pinacoteca Brera of Milan (acquired in 1955, Dell’ Acqua, Russoli 1960, p. 45, fig. 159). The São Paulo and Milan versions, with their small and identical size and greater freedom of execution in comparison to the Stuttgart work, seem to have provided the bozzetto or modelletto for the latter. After the first publication of the work by Modigliani (1924) with attribution to Amigoni, it was included in the Pittoni catalogue by Pallucchini (1960, p. 118, fig. 302) with the comment: “Pittoni attains a graciousness in this painting which seemed to be a characteristic only of Amigoni. Thus the ingenious Pittonian allegretto was born. It is at times malicious and talkative, while simultaneously audacious, vivacious, and precise, and although it does not create a profound figurative commotion, it has its own coherence. The Pittonian mimesis is restless, melodramatic, and theatrical – based on subtle movements of facial features and hand gestures. Fleeting goatboy-like profiles, leaning at three quarters and with sharp upturned noses and darting hands in a dense interplay, are the elements deployed with a sense of plasticity and linearity that is truly rare in Venetian art”. The work seems indeed to mark an important stylistic turning point for Pittoni around the beginning of the 40s, influenced by Ricci (Arslan, 1951), and shows a tendency towards a lighter, less dramatic palette with chiaroscuro effects and a more dramatic scenic milieu, a shift that was attuned to the developments in the history of taste that were to reach their high point in the Rococo.

— Unknown authorship, 1998

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