Olympian – Zaidan Gallery

01 Work, Interpretations of Olympian deities, Nicolaus Knupfer’s Theseus Proposing to Phaedra, with footnotes #29

Nicolaus Knupfer, (Leipzig 1603-1660 Utrecht)
Theseus Proposing to Phaedra
Oil on panel
18 ½ x 25 1/8 in. (47 x 63.8 cm.)
Private collection

Phaedra is a tragic play by Roman playwright Seneca. The play tells the story of Theseus’ wife Phaedra and her lust for her stepson, Hippolytus. However, Hippolytus despises women and wishes to remain pure, preferring to hunt and live in the woods. After Phaedra declares her love, Hippolytus lashes out and strikes to kill her for her lustful crime. Phaedra and her nurse accuse him of raping her, and Hippolytus flees. Upon Theseus’ return from the Underworld, Phaedra continues her lie, and Theseus prays to Neptune for Hippolytus’ death. After Hippolytus dies, Phaedra reveals her deception and kills herself out of shame. Theseus mourns his lost son and condemns Phaedra for her betrayal. More on Theseus and Phaedra

Nikolaus Knüpfer (1609 – 1655) was a Dutch Golden Age painter. Knüpfer was trained in Leipzig, where according to Houbraken he was apprenticed to Emanuel Nysen. He then moved to Magdeburg where he found work making brushes for artists. He stayed there until 1630, and then moved to Utrecht to work with Abraham Bloemaert. He lived with him for two years and then established his own studio in Utrecht, where in 1637 he became a visiting member of the Guild of St. Luke. He worked on the decorations of the castle Kronborg in Denmark, and painted figures in the landscapes of Jan Both and Jan Baptist Weenix. Knüpfer was a successful teacher, whose students were great painters after him. More on Nikolaus Knüpfer

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01 Painting, Olympian deities, Francesco Furini’s Hylas and the nymphs, with footnotes # 39

Francesco Furini, (1603–1646)
Hylas and the nymphs, c. 1630
Oil on canvas
Palazzo Pitti

Hylas was the son of King Theiodamas of the Dryopians. After Hercules killed Hylas’s father, Hylas became a companion of Hercules. They both became Argonauts, accompanying Jason in his quest on his ship Argo in seeking the Golden Fleece. During the journey, Hylas was sent to find fresh water. He found a pond occupied by Naiads, and they lured Hylas into the water and he disappeared. More on Hylas and the nymphs

Francesco Furini (c. 1600 (or 1603) – August 19, 1646) was an Italian Baroque painter of Florence, noted for his sensual sfumato style in paintings of both secular and religious subjects. He was born in Florence to an artistic family. Furini’s early training was by Matteo Rosselli. Traveling to Rome in 1619, he also would have been exposed to the influence of Caravaggio and his followers.

Furini’s work reflects the tension faced by the conservative, mannerist style of Florence when confronting then novel Baroque styles. He is a painter of biblical and mythological set-pieces with a strong use of the misty sfumato technique. In the 1630s his style paralleled that of Guido Reni.

Furini became a priest in 1633 for the parish of Sant’ Ansano in Mugello.

Freedberg describes Furini’s style as filled with “morbid sensuality”. His frequent use of disrobed females is discordant with his excessive religious sentimentality, and his polished stylization and poses are at odds with his aim of expressing highly emotional states. His stylistic choices did not go unnoticed by more puritanical contemporary biographers like Baldinucci. Pignoni also mirrored this style in his works.

Furini traveled to Rome again in the year before his death in 1646. More on Francesco Furini

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01 Work, Interpretations of Hellenic and Roman legends. Salvator Rosa’s Interpretation of The Dream of Aeneas, with footnotes #190

Salvator Rosa (Italian, Arenella (Naples) 1615–1673 Rome)
The Dream of Aeneas, c. 1660–65
Oil on canvas
77 1/2 x 47 1/2 in. (196.9 x 120.7 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art

In Book VIII of Virgil’s Aeneid, the Trojan hero Aeneas has landed in Latium, exhausted from the brewing hostilities with the local Rutili and their leader Turnus. “This way and that he turns his anxious mind; thinks, and rejects the counsel he designed; explores himself in vain, and gives no rest to his distracted heart.” Aeneas finally finds nocturnal repose on the banks of the Tiber, when “thro’ the shadows of the poplar wood, arose the father of the Roman flood an azure robe was over his body spread, a wreath of shady reeds adorned his head.” Tiberinus, the river god himself, tells Aeneas not to fear, for “when thirty rolling years have run their race, thy son Ascanius, on this empty space, shall build a royal town, of lasting fame”—a prophecy of the foundation of Rome. More on this painting

Salvator Rosa (June 20 or July 21, 1615 – March 15, 1673) was one of the least conventional artists of 17th-century Italy, and was adopted as a hero by painters of the Romantic movement in the later 18th and early 19th centuries. He was mainly a painter of landscapes, but the range of his subject matter was unusually wide and included portraits and allegories. He also depicted scenes of witchcraft, influenced by Northern prints.

Rosa’s training took place in Naples, where he was born, and the main influences on his early work were Ribera and Aniello Falcone, a painter best known for his battle scenes. Following visits to Rome in the later 1630s Rosa worked in Florence and its neighbourhood (1640-9), before returning to Rome, where he eventually died. More on Salvator Rosa

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1 Work, Artists Interpretations of Hellenic legends, Raffaello Sorbi’s Bacchanal, with footnotes #189

Raffaello Sorbi (1844-1931)
Bacchanal, c. 1896
Oil on canvas
25 ½ x 44 ½ in. (65 x 113 cm.)
Private collection

Bacchanalia, also called Dionysia, in Greco-Roman religion, any of the several festivals of Bacchus (Dionysus), the wine god. They probably originated as rites of fertility gods. Introduced into Rome from lower Italy, the Bacchanalia were at first held in secret, attended by women only, on three days of the year. Later, admission was extended to men, and celebrations took place as often as five times a month. The reputation of these festivals as orgies led in 186 bc to a decree of the Roman Senate that prohibited the Bacchanalia throughout Italy, except in certain special cases. Nevertheless, Bacchanalia long continued in the south of Italy. More on Bacchanalia

Raffaello Sorbi was a 19th-20th century Florentine painter, specializing in narrative painting.

As a young man, he studied design in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Florence; then painting under professor Antonio Ciseri. By 18 years, he had completed his first major work. He completed commissions for patrons in America and England. In 1863, he won a contest in Rome. In Florence, he exhibited a work depicting Piccarda Donati kidnapped from the Convent of Santa Chiara, by her brother Corso. He completed a St Catherine of Siena before an angry Florentine mob after concluding peace with the Pope, by commission for signore marchese Carlo Torrigiani. His painting of Imelda de’ Lambertazzi e Bonifazio Geremei (lovers from Donizetti’s opera) was sold to Wilhelm Metzler of Frankfort, Germany. In 1869, the sculptor Giovanni Duprè visited his studio, and commissioned a Phidias sculpts the Minerva Statue.

After this work, Sorbi produced mainly small canvases, mostly sold through the Goupil Gallery of Paris. Many are of antique Roman or from the historical Tuscan pasty. Many of his works were acquired by English collectors. In 1870, at the Mostra of Fine Arts di Parma, he displayed La strada. Sorbi became academician at the Royal Institute of Fine Arts of Florence and resident professor and honorary associate of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Urbino.

Sorbi died in Florence on December 19, 1931. More on Raffaello Sorbi

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11 Work, Artists’ Interpretations of Hellenic legends, The Rape of Deianira, with footnotes #188

Coypel, Noël
Hercules, Dejanira and the centaur Nessus, c. around 1688
Oil on canvas
H. 120.2; L. 196 cm. frame: H. 132; W. 207; Thickness 8 cm.
Musée de Versailles, Versailles, France

Hercules pursuing the centaur Nessus, who wants to kidnap his wife Dejanira. However, the scene only gives Veronese the opportunity to describe the involvement of the figures in the mysterious realm of nature — an old theme of Venetian painting. Veronese’s latest style can also be recognized by the clearly darkened, autumnal colors and the open brushstrokes.

Noël Coypel, (born Dec. 25, 1628, Paris, France — died Dec. 24, 1707, Paris), French Baroque historical painter who was the founding member of a dynasty of painters and designers employed by the French court during the late 17th and 18th centuries.

Made an academician in 1663, Coypel served as director of the French Academy in Rome from 1672 to 1676, and in 1695 he was made director of the Royal Academy in Paris. Although Noël Coypel is primarily known as one of the principal producers of decorative paintings for Louis XIV at the palaces of the Tuileries, the Louvre, and Versailles, he is also renowned for such important ecclesiastical commissions as the well-known painting of The Martyrdom of St. James in Notre Dame, Paris. Stylistically his mature works show the influence of Charles Le Brun; but his earlier paintings were in the manner of Poussin, and for this reason he was sometimes called Coypel le Poussin. More on Noël Coypel

Deianira, Deïanira was a Calydonian princess in Greek mythology whose name translated as “man-destroyer” or “destroyer of her husband”. She was the wife of Heracles and, in late Classical accounts, his unwitting murderer, killing him with the poisoned Shirt of Nessus. She is the main character in Sophocles’ play Women of Trachis…

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01 Work, Contemporary Interpretations of Hellenic legends, Helen O’Shea as Leda from the Ziegfeld production of Leda and the Swan with footnotes #26

Unknown artist
Ziegfeld Follies Photo
Helen O’Shea as Leda from the Ziegfeld production of Leda and the Swan, ca. 1920s
8″ W x 10″ H (20.3 cm x 25.4 cm)
Private collection

Photograph of Helen O’Shea as Leda from the Ziegfeld production of Leda and the Swan, ca. 1920s. A rare vintage black and white photograph of a Ziegfeld Follies revue dancer, Helen O’Shea, nude save the large white swan. Posed on toe upon a columniatied tiered pedestal, she seductively caresses the swan. On the verso is the following handwritten inscription, “Miss Helen O’ Shea presenting her own original & classical dance interpretation of ‘Leda & the Swan’ taken from the famous Greek myth. More on this work

Leda, in Greek legend, usually believed to be the daughter of Thestius, king of Aetolia, and wife of Tyndareus, king of Lacedaemon. She was also believed to have been the mother (by Zeus, who had approached and seduced her in the form of a swan) of the other twin, Pollux, and of Helen, both of whom hatched from eggs. Variant legends gave divine parentage to both the twins and possibly also to Clytemnestra, with all three of them having hatched from the eggs of Leda, while yet other legends say that Leda bore the twins to her mortal husband, Tyndareus. Still other variants say that Leda may have hatched out Helen from an egg laid by the goddess Nemesis, who was similarly approached by Zeus in the form of a swan.The divine swan’s encounter with Leda was a subject depicted by both ancient Greek and Italian Renaissance artists; Leonardo da Vinci undertook a painting (now lost) of the theme, and Correggio’s Leda (c. 1530s) is a well-known treatment of the subject. More Leda and The Swan

Helen Shea was a dancer in the Ziegfeld Follies. She was born sometime around 1900, and began dancing at the age of five. She danced in a number of school performances and amateur entertainment shows, and was discovered during one of these performances by Florenz Ziegfeld. Ziegfeld invited her to dance in the Ziegfeld Follies, and in October of 1920, she was billed twice in the program for a performance at the Colonial Theatre in Boston. In the winter of 1921-1922, Shea performed one of the title roles in Mary, Irene, and Sally in Philadelphia and New York, but returned to Follies soon after. It was around this time that she was first billed as Helen O’Shea. In July 1922, she was a principal dancer in Spice of 1922, and in August of 1923 she appeared in the Summer Edition Ziegfeld Follies, performing “the Inspiration”. Shea continued to appear in various touring shows until 1926. In 1925, she appeared in several shows in London. In June of 1926, Shea was a featured dancer in Ziegfeld’s American Review (later known as Ziegfeld Follies of 1926) in New York, and continued to dance in Ziegfeld’s works until his death in 1932. More on Helen Shea

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01 Work, Contemporary Interpretations of Hellenic legend, Robert Brackman’s Muse, with footnotes #27

Robert Brackman, American, 1898-1980
A Muse, c. 1936
Oil on canvas
25 1/8 x 30 1/8 inches
Private collection

Muse, in Greco-Roman religion and mythology, any of a group of sister goddesses of obscure but ancient origin, in Boeotia, Greece. They were born in Pieria, at the foot of Mount Olympus. Very little is known of their cult, but they had a festival every four years at Thespiae. They probably were originally the patron goddesses of poets, although later their range was extended to include all liberal arts and sciences—hence, their connection with such institutions as the Museum (Mouseion, seat of the Muses) at Alexandria, Egypt. There were nine Muses as early as Homer’s Odyssey, and Homer invokes either a Muse or the Muses collectively from time to time. More on Muses

Robert Brackman (September 25, 1898 – July 16, 1980) was an American artist and teacher of Ukrainian origin, best known for large figural works, portraits, and still lifes. Born in Odes’ka Oblast, Ukraine, he emigrated from the Russian Empire in 1908.

Brackman studied at the National Academy of Design from 1919 to 1921, and the Ferrer School in San Francisco. From 1931, he had a long career teaching at the Art Students League of New York where he was a life member. He also taught at the American Art School in New York City, the Brooklyn Museum School, the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts, and the Madison Art School in Connecticut. In 1932, Brackman was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member, and became a full member in 1940.

Brackman was married to Rochelle Post; they later divorced. He had two daughters with his second wife. More on Robert Brackman

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01 Painting, Olympian deities, Giuseppe Simonelli’s Battle of the Centaurs against the Lapiths, with footnotes # 47

Giuseppe Simonelli
Battle of the Centaurs against the Lapiths
Oil on canvas
190 x 257 cm,
Private collections

The battle depicted takes place between the Lapiths and the Centaurs at the wedding feast of Pirithous. Pirithous, king of the Lapith, had long clashed with the neighboring Centaurs. To mark his good intentions Pirithous invited the Centaurs to his wedding to Hippodamia. Some of the Centaurs, over-imbibed at the event, and when the bride was presented to greet the guests, she so aroused the intoxicated centaur Eurytion that he leapt up and attempted to carry her away. This led not only to an immediate clash, but to a year-long war, before the defeated Centaurs were expelled from Thessaly to the northwest. More on the Battle of the Centaurs against the Lapiths

Giuseppe Simonelli (Naples, c.1650–1710) was an Italian painter, active in a late-Baroque style. Born in Naples around 1650, Simonelli was one of the most important painters of the school of Luca Giordano. His early works were often retouched by Giordano to such a degree that some of them were confused with those of the master. He learned Giordano’s art so well that when the master left Naples for the Spanish court in 1692, he was assigned the task of completing the unfinished Neapolitan works for delivery to clients. Reliable details of his own production are available as from 1686, when he received the final payment for a painting of Holy Martyrs for the Jesuit college in Trapani. His most celebrated works are the series of 28 paintings for the Church of the Annunziata in Aversa, produced between 1702 and 1703 together with his brother Gennaro. He worked continuously right up to his death in 1710. More on Giuseppe Simonelli

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05 Paintings of Olympian deities in classical Greek and Roman religions; Andromeda Chained to the Rock by the Nereids, with footnotes

Gustave Doré (1832–1883)
Andromeda, c. 1869
Oil on canvas
height: 256.5 cm (100.9 in); width: 172.7 cm (67.9 in)
Private collection

In Greek mythology, Andromeda was the daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopeia, king and queen of the North African kingdom of Aethiopia (the Upper Nile region).

Paul Gustave Louis Christophe Doré (6 January 1832–23 January 1883) was a French artist, printmaker, illustrator and sculptor. Doré worked primarily with wood engraving.

Doré was born in Strasbourg on 6 January 1832. By age five, he was a prodigy troublemaker, playing pranks that were mature beyond his years. Seven years later, he began carving in cement. At the age of fifteen Doré began his career working as a caricaturist for the French paper Le Journal pour rire, and subsequently went on to win commissions to depict scenes from books by Rabelais, Balzac, Milton and Dante…

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01 Painting, Olympian deities, FLEMISH SCHOOL’s Cephalus and Procris, with footnotes # 46

FLEMISH SCHOOL, 17TH CENTURY
Cephalus and Procris
Oil on canvas
90.5 x 119.3cm (35 5/8 x 46 15/16in)
Private collection

Cephalus was married to Procris, a daughter of Erechtheus, an ancient founding-figure of Athens. One day the goddess of dawn, Eos, kidnapped Cephalus when he was hunting. The resistant Cephalus and Eos became lovers, and she bore him a son. However, Cephalus always pined for Procris, causing a disgruntled Eos to return him to her, making disparaging remarks about his wife’s fidelity.

Once reunited with Procris after an interval of eight years, Cephalus tested her by returning from the hunt in disguise, and managing to seduce her. In shame Procris fled to the forest, to hunt. In returning and reconciling, Procris brought two magical gifts, an inerrant javelin that never missed its mark, and a hunting hound, Laelaps that always caught its prey. The hound met its end chasing a fox (the Teumessian vixen) which could not be caught; both fox and the hound were turned into stone. But the javelin continued to be used by Cephalus, who was an avid hunter.

Procris then conceived doubts about her husband, who left his bride at the bridal chamber and climbed to a mountaintop and sang a hymn invoking Nephele, “cloud”. Procris became convinced that he was serenading a lover. She climbed to where he was to spy on him. Cephalus, hearing a stirring in the brush and thinking the noise came from an animal, threw the never-erring javelin in the direction of the sound – and Procris was impaled. As she lay dying in his arms, she told him “On our wedding vows, please never marry Eos”. Cephalus was distraught at the death of his beloved Procris, and went into exile. More on Cephalus and Procris

Flemish painting flourished from the early 15th century until the 17th century. Flanders delivered the leading painters in Northern Europe and attracted many promising young painters from neighbouring countries. These painters were invited to work at foreign courts and had a Europe-wide influence. Since the end of the Napoleonic era, Flemish painters had again been contributing to a reputation that had been set by the Old Masters. More Flemish School

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02 Paintings, Olympian deities, Antiope and Dirce, with footnotes # 45

Henryk Siemiradzki, (1843–1902)
Dirce, c.1897
Oil on canvas
Height: 263 cm (103.5″); Width: 530 cm (17.3 ft)
National Museum in Warsaw

Dirce was a daughter of the river-gods Achelous or Ismenus, or of Helios.

After Zeus impregnated Antiope, Antiope fled in shame to King Epopeus of Sicyon, but was brought back by Lycus through force, giving birth to the twins Amphion and Zethus on the way. Lycus gave Antiope to Dirce. Dirce hated Antiope and treated her cruelly, until Antiope, in time, escaped…

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05 Works, Contemporary Interpretations of Olympian/Roman legend, Ceri Richards’ Rape of the Sabines, with footnotes #24

Ceri Giraldus Richards (1903–1971)
The Rape of the Sabines (Saudade), c. 1949
Oil on canvas
H 111.5 x W 142 cm
Pallant House Gallery

The theme of the rape of the Sabine women, taken from Roman legend, was a recurring subject in academic history painting. The story of the abduction of the women of the Sabine tribe by the men of Rome in order to populate the city presented a theme through which Richards could further his interest in representing the cycle of nature. The theme of regeneration in the aftermath of an act of violation also seemed particularly apt in post-war Britain. More on this work

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01 Sculpture, Olympian deities, Scipione Tadolini’s GREEK SLAVE, with footnotes

Scipione Tadolini (1822-1892). Italian, Rome, 1860
LA SCHIAVA GRECA (THE GREEK SLAVE)
arrara marble, on a later rosso marble pedestal
marble: 166cm., 65 3/8 in., base: 52cm., 20½in.
Private collection

About the sculpture. This elegantly conceived figure of a Greek Slave is one of Scipione Tadolini’s defining masterpieces. Tadolini was the eldest son and inheritor of Antonio Canova’s principal studio assistant, Adamo Tadolini, and, like his father, he rapidly emerged as one of the leading sculptors in Rome during his lifetime. The superbly carved and polished surface of this serene marble stands in the celebrated tradition of idealised statuary established by Canova, the greatest Italian sculptor of the 18th and 19th centuries and the father of neoclassicism. However, the touching portrayal of a beautiful young girl enslaved, together with her orientalist guise, looks forward to the Romantic movement in 19th-century sculpture.An idealised female youth stands in contrapposto, her right arm raised as she contemplates her bracelet. Tadolini’s magisterial composition is a response to one of the most famous sculptures of the age, Hiram Powers’ Greek Slave, which was exhibited for the first time at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851, where it caused a sensation, both for its beauty and for its scandalous nudity (the marble is currently in the collection of Lord Barnard at Raby Castle, Durham). Like Powers’ model, the theme of Tadolini’s sculpture is taken from the Greek War of Independence of the 1820’s. The young woman has been abducted by the Turks and is about to be sold in a slave market. Tadolini’s Greek Slave is consequently a highly emotive and politically charged image, designed to appeal to a Western audience through portraying a Christian innocent enslaved within a Muslim culture. The Turkish context within which the Greek Slave finds herself is emphasised by Tadolini in the beautifully carved headress, which falls about her shoulders, and recalls Ingres’ La Grande Odalisque (1814; musée du Louvre, Paris. More About the sculpture

Scipione Tadolini (1822–1893) was an Italian sculptor operating in the second half of the 19th century.

Tadolini was trained in his father’s studio. His first major work was Ninfa Pescatrice (Nymph Fishing) in 1846. During his career, he created a statue of Santa Lucia for the Santa Lucia del Gonfalone Church in Rome, a bust of Victor Emmanuel II of Italy, an equestrian portrait of Simon Bolivar for Lima, Peru, and St Michael Overcoming Satan, commissioned by merchant Gardner Brewer and now in Boston College. His family’s studio, at 150a-b Via del Babuino, Rome, has now been restored as the Museo Atelier Canova Tadolini, which preserves the works of Canova and the Tadolini family. More on Scipione Tadolini

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08 Mosaic , Olympian deities, Roman wall painting from Pompeii, with footnotes, #10

Unknown artist
Venus and Cupid Punished
Pompeian fresco
Fresco
cm 154 x 116
Naples National Archaeological Museum

Eros brought by Peïtho to Venus; Anteros laughs at him because he is being punished for having chosen the wrong target.

In Greek mythology, Peitho is the goddess who personifies persuasion and seduction. Her Roman equivalent is Suada or Suadela. She is the goddess of charming speech. She is typically presented as an important companion of Aphrodite.

There is evidence that Peitho was referred to as a goddess before she was referred to as an abstract concept, which is rare for a personification. Peitho represents both sexual and political persuasion. She is associated with the art of rhetoric. More on Peitho

In Greek mythology, Anteros was the god of requited love (literally “love returned” or “counter-love”) and also the punisher of those who scorn love and the advances of others, or the avenger of unrequited love. More on Anteros…

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01 Painting, Olympian deities, Louis Welden Hawkins’ Muse Erato on a Deserted Beach, with footnotes # 44

Louis Welden Hawkins (French, 1849–1910)
Muse Erato on a Deserted Beach (Spirit of the Waves)
Oil on canvas
17 x 21 3/4 in. (43.2 x 8.6cm)
Private collection

In Greek mythology, Erato is one of the Greek Muses. The name would mean “desired” or “lovely”, if derived from the same root as Eros, as Apollonius of Rhodes playfully suggested in the invocation to Erato that begins Book III of his Argonautica.

Erato is the Muse of love poetry. In the Orphic hymn to the Muses, it is Erato who charms the sight. Since the Renaissance she has mostly been shown with a wreath of myrtle and roses, holding a lyre, or a small kithara, a musical instrument often associated with Apollo. Other representations may show her holding a golden arrow, reminding one of the “eros”, the feeling that she inspires in everybody, and at times she is accompanied by the god Eros, holding a torch. More on Erato

Louis Welden Hawkins (1849–1910) was born in Germany of English parents, later taking French nationality. He was a detailed Symbolist painter.

Hawkins was born in Stuttgart, Germany on 1 July 1849. He moved to France and later took French nationality. Hawkins attended the Académie Julian in Paris and rose to fame after his expositions in the Salon de la Société des Artistes Francais. His first works were shown in the Salon in 1881. After that, expositions followed at the Salon de la Société des Beaux Artes (1894–1911), the Salon de la Rose+Croix (1894–95) and La Libre Esthétique in Brussels. He lived for a period with Camille Pelletan, a radical socialist politician, and he continued to move in radical circles. In his Portrait of Séverine (1895), he shows a popular journalist, Caroline Rémy (1855-1929) who was a famous defender of humanitarian causes. He was also friendly with artists such as James Abbott McNeill Whistler and Auguste Rodin, whose portrait he painted.

He spent his last years in Brittany, where he painted mostly landscapes.

Louis Welden Hawkins died on 1 May 1910 and was honoured a year later at the Salon Nationale. More on Louis Welden Hawkins

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01 Paintings, Olympian deities, Prague School’s Venus, Bacchus and Cupid, with footnotes # 43

Prague School, early 17th century followers of Hans von Aachen
Venus, Bacchus and Cupid
Oil on canvas
h: 67 w: 57.50 cm
Private collection

Venus and Love/ Venus and Cupid. Different tales exist about the origin of Venus and Cupid. Some say that Venus, the goddess of love and beauty, had a love affair with Mars, the god of war. Out of this relationship, Cupid was born.

Cupid has attributes from both of his parents. Like his mother he is considered to be the god of love, or more precisely, the god of falling in love. He is portrayed as an innocent little child with bow and arrows. He shoots arrows to the heart, and awakening a love that you’re powerless to resist.

Venus and Cupid are often shown in intimate poses, reflecting the unique love between mother and child. More Venus and Love

Dionysus is the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness, fertility, theatre and religious ecstasy in Greek mythology. Alcohol, especially wine, played an important role in Greek culture with Dionysus being an important reason for this life style. His name shows that he may have been worshipped as early as c. 1500–1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks. His origins are uncertain, and his cults took many forms; some are described by ancient sources as Thracian, others as Greek. In some cults, he arrives from the east, as an Asiatic foreigner; in others, from Ethiopia in the South. He is a major, popular figure of Greek mythology and religion, and is included in some lists of the twelve Olympians. Dionysus was the last god to be accepted into Mt. Olympus. He was the youngest and the only one to have a mortal mother.

Also known as Bacchus, the name adopted by the Romans and the frenzy he induces, bakkheia. His wand is sometimes wound with ivy and dripping with honey. It is a beneficent wand but also a weapon, and can be used to destroy those who oppose his cult and the freedoms he represents. More on Bacchus

Hans von Aachen (1552 – 4 March 1615) was a German painter who was one of the leading representatives of Northern Mannerism.

Hans von Aachen was a versatile and productive artist who worked in many genres. He was successful as a painter of princely and aristocratic portraits, and further painted religious, mythological and allegorical subjects. Known for his skill in the depiction of nudes, his eroticized mythological scenes were particularly enjoyed by his principal patron, Emperor Rudolf II. These remain the works for which he is best known. He also painted a number of genre paintings of small groups of figures shown from the chest upwards.

The life and work of Hans von Aachen bear unique witness to the cultural transfer between North, South and Central Europe in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. After training in the tradition of Netherlandish Renaissance painting he moved to Italy in 1574, for about 14 years, mainly working in Venice. He returned in 1587 to his native Germany. His final years were spent in Prague. The combination of the Netherlandish realism of his training and the Italian influences gained during his travels gave rise to his unique painting style. More on Hans von Aachen

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04 Works, Helenic Carvings & Sculpture, With Footnotes #6

**A SOUTHERN GERMAN OR NORTH ITALIAN EARLY 17TH CENTURY GILT BRONZE STATUETTE OF MINERVA**
Haut. (bronze) 15,5 cm, haut. (base) 9 cm; height (bronze) 6 in., height (base) 3 1/2 in.
Private Collection

Minerva is the Roman goddess of wisdom and strategic warfare and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. From the second century BC onward, the Romans equated her with the Greek goddess Athena,[1] though the Romans did not stress her relation to battle and warfare as the Greeks did. More on Minerva

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06 Paintings, Olympian deities, The tale of Eurydice, with footnotes # 42

MASTER OF THE CAMPANA CASSONI, active in Florence 1503 – 1527
EURYDICE AND HER COMPANIONS: A CASSONE PANEL
Oil on panel
24½ by 59 in.; 62.2 by 149.9 cm.
Private collection

Eurydice was the wife of Orpheus, who loved her dearly; on their wedding day, he played joyful songs as his bride danced through the meadow. One day, Aristaeus, a minor god in Greek mythology, saw and pursued Eurydice, who stepped on a viper, was bitten, and died instantly…

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01 Work, Interpretations of Olympian deities, Francesco Furini’s Hylas and the nymphs, with footnotes #30

Francesco Furini, (1603–1646)
Hylas and the nymphs, c. 1630
Oil on canvas
Height: 230 cm (90.5 ″); Width: 261 cm (102.7 ″)
Palazzo Pitti

Furini became a priest in 1633 for the parish of Sant’Ansano in Mugello.

Furini traveled to Rome again in the year before his death in 1646. More on Francesco Furini

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01 Painting, Arthur Hacker’s Sea-Maiden, with footnotes # 43

Arthur Hacker, (1858–1919)
The Sea-Maiden, c. 1897
Oil on canvas
128.5 × 131 cm (50.5 × 51.5 ″)
Private collection

The Sea-Maiden is a Scottish fairy tale collected by John Francis Campbell in Popular Tales of the West Highlands, listing his informant as John Mackenzie, fisherman, near Inverary. Joseph Jacobs included it in Celtic Fairy Tales. More on The Sea-Maiden

Arthur Hacker RA (St Pancras, Middlesex, 25 September 1858 – 12 November 1919 Kensington, London) was an English classicist painter.

In his art he was most known for painting religious scenes and portraits, and his art was also influenced by his extensive travels in Spain and North Africa. He studied at the Royal Academy between 1876 and 1880, and at the Atelier Bonnat in Paris. He was twice exhibited at the Royal Academy, in 1878 and 1910, and was elected an Academician in 1910. lfred Keogh by hangs in the RAMC HQ Mess at Millbank, London.

He is buried in Brookwood Cemetery. More on Arthur Hacker

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don’t own any of these images – credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

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