Luca Giordano, (Italian, 1634–1705) THE RAPE OF HELEN Oil on Glass 28 x 34 cm. (11 x 13.4 in.) Private collection
Throughout his career, Gustave Moreau showed remarkable fidelity to the character of Hélène de Troie by devoting an exceptionally rich ensemble to her. Main rival of Salomé in the heart of the artist, the most beautiful woman of antiquity appeared in his work in 1852, then returned triumphantly in the company of Galatea on the occasion of the last Salon of the painter in 1880. More on this painting
Helen of Troy has inspired artistic and cultural works for nearly six centuries. The following works cover various media to include items of historic interest, enduring works of high art, and recent representations in popular culture. They represent portrayals that a reader has a reasonable chance of encountering rather than a complete catalog.
Gustave Moreau (1826–1898) Hélène à la porte Scée./ Helen at the Scaean Gate, c. 1880s Oil on canvas height: 72 cm (28.3 in); width: 100 cm (39.3 in) Musée Gustave Moreau
Throughout his career, Gustave Moreau showed remarkable fidelity to the character of Hélène de Troie by devoting an exceptionally rich ensemble to her. Main rival of Salomé in the heart of the artist, the most beautiful woman of antiquity appeared in his work in 1852, then returned triumphantly in the company of Galatea on the occasion of the last Salon of the painter in 1880. More on this painting
Helen of Troy has inspired artistic and cultural works for nearly six centuries. The following works cover various media to include items of historic interest, enduring works of high art, and recent representations in popular culture. They represent portrayals that a reader has a reasonable chance of encountering rather than a complete catalog…
Paul Beckert (1856–1922) Leda and the Swan, c. 1912 Oil on canvas height: 65 cm (25.5 in); width: 120 cm (47.2 in) I have no further description, at this time
Paul Beckert was taught in the Dresden and Munich academies. He married Anna Leontine von Frank in 1883, which gained him access to a broad network of patrons in the Prussian aristocracy. He portrayed Emperor William I and Field Marshall Moltke (now in the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz) among many others. More on Paul Beckert
Leda and the Swan is a story and subject in art from Greek mythology in which the god Zeus, or Jupiter, in the Roman version, in the form of a swan, seduces or rapes Leda, the daughter of the King of Aetolia, and married to the Spartan King Tyndareus. According to later Greek mythology, Leda bore Helen and Polydeuces, children of Zeus, while at the same time bearing Castor and Clytemnestra, children of her husband Tyndareus, the King of Sparta…
Jan Wellens de Cock (ca. 1470–1521) Lot and his daughters, c. 1523 Oil on oak wood Height: 36.2 cm (14.2 in); Width: 48.9 cm (19.2 in) Detroit Institute of Arts
Jan Wellens de Cock (c. 1480–1527) was a Flemish painter and draftsman of the Northern Renaissance.
He was probably born in Leiden in Holland but settled in Antwerp. In 1506 Jan is recorded in the archives of the Guild of Saint Luke in Antwerp as having accepted an apprentice called ‘Loduwyck’. It is unclear in which year Jan became a master. In 1507 de Cock was paid for painting angels and restoring the Holy Ghost at the altar of this guild in Antwerp Cathedral. These works were probably lost in the “beeldenstorm” of 1566. In 1511 the guild paid de Cock for cutting a woodblock for a print to use in the guild’s procession. This is the only indication that de Cock, to whom several prints have been attributed, was indeed active as a block cutter.
In 1520 he was dean of the guild of Saint Luke. Jan’s artistic activity has been the subject of considerable controversy, and there is not a single work that can be attributed to him with certainty. The works attributed to Jan generally belong to the so-called school of Antwerp Mannerism and/or show the influence of Hieronymus Bosch. More on Jan Wellens de Cock
Lot’s sexual relationship with his daughters was a theme seldom explored in medieval art. In the sixteenth century, however, the story became popular with European artists, primarily due to its erotic potential. Depictions of Lot and his daughters in this era were generally charged with sexuality; the daughters would often be painted as nudes, and Lot would be portrayed (in contradiction to the Bible narrative) as “either a happily compliant figure or an aggressive seducer”…
Francisco Manuel Oller y Cestero (Puerto Rican, 1833–1917) Lady Bullfighter on a Horse,” c. 1851-2 Oil on canvas Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, San Juan
Oller’s earliest surviving European painting, below, evinces the duality informing much of his work: It depicts a woman bullfighter in Madrid — an anomaly in a male-dominated field, incongruously placed in a Caribbean setting. You could take the painter out of Puerto Rico, but you often couldn’t take Puerto Rico out of the paintings (palm trees, upper left), even in some that seem overly impressed by Impressionism. More on this painting
Francisco Oller (June 17, 1833 — May 17, 1917) was a Puerto Rican painter. Oller is the only Latin American painter to have played a role in the development of Impressionism. One of the most distinguished transatlantic painters of his day, Oller helped transform painting in the Caribbean…
Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) Detail; Self-portrait, c. 1875 Oil on canvas Height : 64.0 cm; Width : 53.0 cm Orsay Museum
Paul Cézanne (19 January 1839–22 October 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavor to a new and radically different world of art in the 20th century…
Zaidan Gallery 