Attributed to Johann König
Around 1610–13
Oil paint on copper
25.4 x 18.5 cm
In the Metamorphoses, the ancient Roman poet Ovid recounts a mythological episode set in Lycia, a region in Asia Minor (now Turkey) in which Latona, the mother of the gods Apollo and Diana, turned a group of peasants into frogs. They had angered her by stirring up the mud in a pond to prevent her from drinking.
Johann König was a German painter who spent several years in Italy, where this painting was made. It copies a composition by another German artist working in Rome, Adam Elsheimer.