The Death of Hyacinthus

Italian School, 17th century.

A popular mythological subject for classical painters, the story goes pretty much like this:  Apollo and his current boyfriend, Hyacinthus, were out frolicking, throwing a discus back and forth.  Apollo threw the thing one last time and his young beau ran to make the catch but missed and was, instead, hit by the discus and killed.  Where Hyacinthus' blood fell, a flower sprang up and was watered by Apollo's tears.

The original flower was more likely akin to the iris rather that the modern hyacinth.  And I really like how some of the artists update the discus to an early tennis ball and racket.

Nicolas-René Jollain (1732-1804), 1769 - this is an overdoor in the Salon de compagnie in the Petit Trianon at Versailles.

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (March 5, 1696 – March 27, 1770), 1752-53.

Benjamin West, RA (October 10, 1738 – March 11, 1820), 1771.

Alexander Alexandrovich Kiselev (1838-1911), date unknown.

Merry-Joseph Blondel (July 25, 1781 – June 12, 1853), date unknown.