Hall of Troy, North Wall: "The Trojan Horse”

The scene represents the construction of the wooden horse, a ruse with which the Achaeans will enter the city of Troy. The scene follows the relative description contained in Hyginus' Fabularum Liber, a mythographic compendium that inspired almost all the scenes on the walls of the room. This would be confirmed by the presence of Minerva in the act of supervising, with the architect Epeus, the construction works of the horse and the dedicatory inscription placed on the base of the statue itself. On the right, Achille and some companions observe the work from a rise in the ground. In the panel on the right, above the door leading to the Chamber of Heads, Vulcan appears in the act of forging Achilles' weapons: the hero's mother, the nereid Thetis, assists him (Iliad, book XVIII). The episode is determined by the loss of the hero's weapons worn by Patroclus, whose death is represented on the east vault of the vault. The particular appearance of Achilles' shield, characterized by three concentric bands around a terrestrial representation, one of which includes the zodiac constellations, demonstrates the derivation of the image from the commentary on the Iliad by Eustathius of Thessalonica. The execution of both frescoes, designed by Giulio Romano, is attributed to Rinaldo Mantovano.