On January 28 at Sotheby’s New York, Orazio Gentileschi’s baroque masterpiece “Danaë” sold for $30.5 million – more than seven times the previous world auction record for the artist. The monumental painting was acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, and was the star lot of Sotheby’s $53.5 million evening sale of Master paintings.

Commissioned in 1621 by the nobleman Giovanni Antonio Sauli for his palazzo in Genoa, this fantastic oil on canvas captures a scene from the myth of Danaë in which the daughter of King Acrisius of Argo is spirited away to a secret chamber to dissuade all male suitors from falling in love and impregnating the beauty. While mere mortals are deterred, Jupiter, God of the Sky and Thunder, is not — he catches a glimpse and promptly falls in love with the princess, materializing in her bedroom as a shower of gold coins. In Gentileschi’s rendering, Jupiter’s arrival is announced by Cupid who pulls back the curtains to reveal Danaë in all her exquisiteness.

Sotheby’s invited Pamela Romanowsky, writer and director of The Adderall Diaries, to create a film inspired by Gentileschi’s painting. Watch this beautiful and modern interpretation of the moment when Zeus reveals himself to Danaë and changes her life forever. Video courtesy of Sotheby’s.

Video: New Filmmaker Meets an Old Master

An interview with filmmaker Pamela Romanowsky about the making of the film “Reimagining Gentileschi’s Danaë”.