Click image for a larger version.
Evelyn de Morgan belongs to the rare breed of female classical painters. Her Pre-Raphaelite style is as powerful and enchanting as that of her male colleagues.
Click image for a larger version.
Evelyn de Morgan belongs to the rare breed of female classical painters. Her Pre-Raphaelite style is as powerful and enchanting as that of her male colleagues.
The Glyptothek is one of the great treasures of Munich. I love to go there and enjoy these old Greek and Roman statues.
Here are some snaps and videos I made of the Statue of the God Apollo. Don’t be fooled by his feminine looks …
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1. Click player below to start the music. 2. Click the image to dive into the art. 3. Study for three and a half minutes this great piece of art and all the drama. |
One of the most fascinating things about ancient Greek culture is their insights into the human psyche. Their Gods depict all the basic human desires and archetypes – and western culture is still using these.
Bacchus (which is the Roman version of Dionysus) and Cupid (which is Eros in the Greek original) are certainly still in "use" today. Drinking and lust go very well together.
More? Jean-Léon Gérôme @ ArtRenewal
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1. Click player below to start the music. 2. Click the image to dive into the art. 3. Study for one and a half minutes this great piece of art and all the drama. |
Once again a great painting by Maestro Stuck: simple, harsh and effective. But as usual he nails the story perfectly.
Note to all Heroes: beware of the young princess – she has neither the maturity nor the backbone to withstand the temptations of power and sexuality. She’ll be your doom!
Click image for a bigger shield.
Franz von Stuck – who actually lived here in Munich – is one of my favorite painters. His images are strong and mythical. Many of his paintings have nightmarish qualities and often deeply penetrate the viewers psyche.
Simplicity often is the best way to let beauty speak for itself. Robert Mapplethorpe was the Master of reduction – he had a keen eye for just capturing the essence of his subjects.
Here is an excellent article about “Robert Mapplethorpe and the Classical Tradition” in relationship to Mannerism.
Most amusing side note: here we see the God Apollo – who was also the patron of the Arts.
Click image for more Venus.
I love these ancient Greek statues – almost all amazing graces. I wish there was a 3D image for showing off such artwork on the web – so we could rotate the statue and zoom into details.
A crouching position is pretty unusual – most statues stand up – which makes them more impressive to their followers (remember we talk about the Goddess Venus here).
Once again a collection of images, texts and background info about an old and great myth. The story of Icarus & Daedalus is complex and highly symbolic. It contains several layers and aspects I find very interesting:
Daedalus – the great inventor, whose skills are highly praised, but bring only blood and tears to himself and his family.
Evil King – who forces Daedalus to build the labyrinth.
Father and Son – a great family story, how they work together to escape the evil king.
Freedom – you can outwit evil and literally fly into freedom. Great symbolic act.
Inventor – great ideas can give you wings and let you escape your current (dreadful) situation. Outsmart your own destiny.
Wild youth – when youngster go wild and burn themselves – once again in a literal way. Also connects to the old ‘I told you so’ aspect of parenthood.
Burning – you can burn yourself if you get to close to the Gods or being too curious.
Falldown – the higher they fly, the deeper they fall. Also ‘keeping it low – even when you made it’ – so you don’t fall to deep. Daedalus was wise and survived, Icarus was foolish and died.
Moving on – although he lost his son Daedalus continues his life. He also faced his treacherous talents and prayed to the gods.
Part of the Art Motive Series: "The Story of Daedalus and Icarus"
Ludovico Lana – Daedalus and Icarus
Ovid’s Metamorphoses, VIII,(lines 183 to 235):
… Daedalus, hating Crete and his long exile, and longing to see his native land, was shut in by the sea. “Though he may block escape by land and water,” he said, “yet the sky is open, and by that way I will go. Though Minos rules over all, he does not rule the air.” So saying, he sets his mind at work upon unknown arts, and changes the laws of nature. For he lays feathers in order, beginning at the smallest, short next to long, so you would think they had grown on a slope. Just so the old-fashioned rustic pan-pipes with their unequal reeds rise one above another.Then he fastened the feathers together with twine and wax at the middle and bottom; and, thus arranged, he bent them with a gentle curve, so that they looked like real birds’ wings.
His son, Icarus, was standing by and, little knowing that he was handling his own peril, with gleeful face would now catch at the feathers which some passing breeze had blown about, now mold the yellow wax with his thumb, and by his sport would hinder his father’s wonderful task. When now the finishing touches had been put upon the work, the master workman himself balanced his body on two wings and hung poised on the beaten air. He taught his son also and said: “I warn you, Icarus, to fly in a middle course, lest, if you go too low, the water may weight your wings; if you go too high, the fire may burn them. Fly between the two. And I bid you not to shape your course like Bootes or Helice or the drawn sword of Orion, but fly where I shall lead.” At the same time he tells him the rules of flight and fits the strange wings on his boy’s shoulders. While he works and talks the old man’s cheeks are wet with tears, and his fatherly hands tremble. He kisses his son, which he was destined never again to do, and rising on his wings, he flew on ahead, fearing for his companion, just like a bird which has led forth her fledglings from the high nest into the unsubstantial air.
He encourages the boy to follow, instructs him in the fatal art of flight, himself flapping his wings and looking back on his son. Now some fisherman spies them, angling for fish with his flexible rod, or a shepherd, leaning upon his crook, or a plowman, on his plow-handles–spies them and stands stupefied, and believes them to be gods that they could fly through the air. And now Juno’s sacred Samos had been passed on the left, and Delos and Paros; Lebinthos was on the right and Calymne, rich in honey, when the boy began to rejoice in his bold flight and, deserting his leader, led by a desire for the open sky, directed his course to a greater height. The scorching rays of the nearer sun softened the fragrant wax which held his wings.
The wax melted; his arms were bare as he beat them up and down, but, lacking wings, they took no hold on the air. His lips, calling to the last upon his father’s name, were drowned in the dark blue sea, which took its name from him. But the unhappy father, now no longer father, called: “Icarus, Icarus, where are you? In what place shall I seek you? Icarus,” he called again; and then he spied the wings floating on the deep, and cursed his skill. He buried the boy in a tomb, and the land was called for the buried boy.
More? Ovid @ Wikipedia and his breathtaking work Metamorphoses @ Wikipedia
Part of the Art Motive Series: "The Story of Daedalus and Icarus"
From Wikipedia:
In Greek mythology, Daedalus (Latin, also Hellenized Latin Daedalos, Greek Daidalos (Δαίδαλος) meaning "cunning worker", and Etruscan Taitle) was a most skillful artificer, so skillful that he was said to have invented images. Daedalus had two sons: Icarus and Iapyx. He is first mentioned in Homer as the creator of a wide dancing-ground for Ariadne. Homer refers to Ariadne by her Cretan title, the "Lady of the Labyrinth". The Labyrinth on Crete in which the Minotaur was kept was also created by the artificer Daedalus. The story of the labyrinth is told where Theseus is challenged to kill the Minotaur, finding his way with the help of Ariadne’s thread.
Ignoring Homer, later writers envisaged the labyrinth as an edifice rather than a single path to the center and out again, and gave it numberless winding passages and turns that opened into one another, seeming to have neither beginning nor end (see labyrinth as opposed to maze). Ovid, in his Metamorphoses, suggests that Daedalus constructed the Labyrinth so cunningly that he himself could barely escape it after he built it. Daedalus built the labyrinth for King Minos, who needed it to imprison his wife’s son the Minotaur. The story is told that Poseidon had given a white bull to Minos so that he might use it as a sacrifice. Instead, Minos kept it for himself; and in revenge, Poseidon made his wife lust for the bull. For Minos’ wife, Pasiphaë, Daedalus also built the wooden cow so she could mate with the bull, for the Greeks imagined the Minoan bull of the sun to be an actual, earthly bull.
Athenians transferred Cretan Daedalus as Athenian-born, the grandson of the ancient king Erechtheus, who fled to Crete, having killed his nephew, Perdix. Over time, other stories were told of Daedalus. In the nineteenth century, Thomas Bulfinch combined these into a single synoptic view of material which Andrew Stewart calls a "historically-intractable farrago of "evidence", heavily tinged with Athenian cultural chauvinism" (Stewart). Among these anecdotes, one told that Daedalus was shut up in a tower to prevent his knowledge of the labyrinth from spreading to the public. He could not leave Crete by sea, as the king kept strict watch on all vessels, permitting none to sail without being carefully searched.
Since Minos controlled the land and sea routes, Daedalus set to work to fabricate wings for himself and his young son Icarus. He tied feathers together, from smallest to largest so as to form an increasing surface. The larger ones he secured with thread and the smaller with wax, and gave the whole a gentle curvature like the wings of a bird. When the work was finally done, the artist, waving his wings, found himself buoyed upward and hung suspended, poising himself on the beaten air. He next equipped his son in the same manner, and taught him how to fly. When both were prepared for flight, Daedalus warned Icarus not to fly too high, because the heat of the sun would melt the wax, nor too low because the sea foam would make the wings wet and they would no longer fly. Thus the father and son flew away.
They had passed Samos, Delos and Lebynthos when the boy began to soar upward as if to reach heaven. The blazing sun softened the wax which held the feathers together and they came off. Icarus fell into the sea. His father cried, bitterly lamenting his own arts, called the land near the place where Icarus fell into the ocean Icaria in memory of his child. Eventually Daedalus arrived safely in Sicily, in the care of King Cocalus, where he built a temple to Apollo, and hung up his wings, an offering to the god.
Minos, meanwhile, searched for Daedalus by travelling from city to city asking a riddle. He presented a spiral seashell and asked for a string to be run through it. When he reached Camicus, King Cocalus, knowing Daedalus would be able to solve the riddle, privately fetched the old man to him. He tied the string to an ant which, lured by a drop of honey at one end, walked through the seashell stringing it all the way through. Minos then knew Daedalus was in the court of King Cocalus and demanded he be handed over. Cocalus managed to convince Minos to take a bath first, where Cocalus’ daughters killed Minos.
Daedalus was so proud of his achievements that he could not bear the idea of a rival. His sister had placed her son Perdix under his charge to be taught the mechanical arts. He was an apt scholar and showed striking evidence of ingenuity. Walking on the seashore, he picked up the spine of a fish[5]. Imitating it, he took a piece of iron and notched it on the edge, and thus invented the saw. He put two pieces of iron together, connecting them at one end with a rivet, and sharpening the other ends, and made a pair of compasses. Daedalus was so envious of his nephew’s accomplishments that he took an opportunity, when they were together one day on the top of a high tower, to push him off. But Minerva, who favors ingenuity, saw him falling and arrested his fate by changing him into a bird called after his name, the partridge. This bird does not build his nest in the trees, nor take lofty flights, but nestles in the hedges, and mindful of his fall, avoids high places. For this crime, Daedalus was tried and banished.
Part of the Art Motive Series: "The Story of Daedalus and Icarus"
From Wikipedia:
Icarus (Greek: Ἴκαρος, Latin: Íkaros, Etruscan: Vicare) is a character in Greek Mythology. Icarus’s father, Daedalus attempted to escape his prison, the Labyrinth, in which he was imprisoned at the hands of King Minos, the king for whom he had built the Labyrinth (Labyrinth is derived from the Minoans word for a ceremonial axe). The Labyrinth’s original purpose was intended to hold the horrible creature, the Minotaur, a beast that was a product of one of the King’s mistress’s affairs with a bull. The Minotaur was born to King Minos and his wife instead of a son because the Gods were mad at them. As the Minotaur grew up it became violent and dangerous, so they had to imprison it in the Labyrinth. Daedalus fashioned a pair of wings for himself and his son, made of feathers and wax. Before they took off from the prison, Daedalus warned his son not to fly too close to the sun, as the wax would melt, nor too close to the sea, as the wax would dampen. Overcome by the sublime feeling that flying gave him, Icarus soared through the sky joyfully, but in the process he came too close to the sun, which melted his wings. Icarus kept flapping his wings but soon realized that he had no feathers left and that he was only flapping his bare arms. And so, Icarus fell into the sea in the area which bears his name, the Icarian Sea near Icaria, an island southwest of Samos. His flight was routinely alluded to by Greek poets in passing, but was told in a nutshell in Pseudo-Apollodorus, (Epitome of the Biblioteca) . Latin poets read the myth more philosophically, often linking Icarus analogically to artists. In the fifteenth century Ovid became the source for the myth as it was rediscovered and transformed as a vehicle for heroic audacity and the poet’s own aspirations, by Renaissance poets like Jacopo Sannazaro and Ariosto, as well as in Spain.
Hellenistic writers who provided philosophical underpinnings to the myth also preferred more realistic variants, in which the escape from Crete was actually by boat, provided by Pasiphaë, for which Daedalus invented the first sails, to outstrip Minos’ pursuing galleys, and that Icarus fell overboard en route to Sicily and drowned. Heracles erected a tomb for him.
Part of the Art Motive Series: "The Story of Daedalus and Icarus"
The right stamp to send something via airmail? 
Part of the Art Motive Series: "The Story of Daedalus and Icarus"
Why do people paint such great images to ceilings – to break our necks. This image actually makes perfect sense up there – since it all happened in the sky above us.
This is a wonderful depiction of the whole event. Anyone knows the artist?
Part of the Art Motive Series: "The Story of Daedalus and Icarus"
The myth in comic style – anno 1500. The only thing that confuses me are the flies on the tower.
Part of the Art Motive Series: "The Story of Daedalus and Icarus"
From Wikipedia:
Ikaria, also spelled Icaria, locally Nikaria or Nicaria , is a Greek island 10 nautical miles (19 km) south-west of Samos. It derived its name from Ikarus, the son of Daedalus in Greek mythology, who fell into the sea nearby.
It is one of the middle islands of the notherner Aegean, 660 km² (255 mi²) in area with 102 miles (160 km) in coastline and a population of about 7,000 inhabitants. The topography is a contrast between verdant slopes and barren steep rocks. The island is mountainous for the most part. It is traversed by Aetheras range, whose highest summit is 1,040 metres. Most of its villages are nestled in the plains near the coast, with only some of them on the mountains. Ikaria has a tradition in the production of strong red wine. Many parts of the island are covered by large bushes, especially ravines, making the landscape lush with green. There are no rare species of fauna on the island. Besides pets, only small goat herds make their presence known, disturbing the serenity of the island with their bells. Ikaria’s climate is considered mild.
Ikaria has been inhabited since at least 7000 B.C. when it was inhabited by the Neolithic pre-hellenic people that Greeks called Pelasgians. Around 750 B.C. Greeks from Miletus colonized Ikaria establishing a settlement in the area of present day Campos, which they called Oenoe for its wine. In the sixth century B.C. Ikaria was absorbed by Samos and became part of Polycrates’ sea empire. At this time the temple of Artemis at Nas, on the northeast corner of the island was built. Nas was a sacred spot to the pre-Greek inhabitants of the Aegean, and an important port of the island in antiquity, the last stop before testing the dangerous seas around Ikaria. It was an appropriate place for sailors to make sacrifices to Artemis, who among other functions, was a patron of seafarers. The temple stood in good repair until the middle of the 19th century when it was pillaged by the villagers of Christos, Raches for marble for their local church. In 1939 it was excavated by the Greek archeologist Leon Politis. During the German and Italian occupation of Ikaria in the Second World War many of the artifacts unearthed by Politis disappeared. Local custom has it that there are still marble statues embedded in the sand off the coast.
Part of the Art Motive Series: "The Story of Daedalus and Icarus"
A very modern, yet charming interpretation of Icarus.
Part of the Art Motive Series: "The Story of Daedalus and Icarus"
Wow! What a proud – almost violent – young Icarus!
More about Alfred Gilbert @ Artrenewal.org
Part of the Art Motive Series: "The Story of Daedalus and Icarus"
A more intimate portray of our two heroes testing their wings before trying to escape the King of Minos.
I find this image a bit odd. Icarus looks very feminine on this painting, almost like a female angel taking of his bra / wings. His face looks very soft and his hand gesture are so absolutely gay …
Part of the Art Motive Series: "The Story of Daedalus and Icarus"
This one looks more like flying lessons from one old angel to a younger one. All very Kitsch. There is no context to the original tale or anything Greek.
More? Charles-Pail Landon Wikipedia entry
Part of the Art Motive Series: "The Story of Daedalus and Icarus"
Daedalus and Icarus are getting ready to escape the evil king Minos with their newly built wings. Imprisoned in a high tower of the royal palace they get ready to fly away. They are excited, they are nervous. Will they be discovered before they are ready? Will it work? Can they escape? Or will they plunge to death?
A final deep breath and they jump down …
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1. Click player below to start the music. 2. Click the image to dive into the art. 3. Study for three minutes this great piece of art and all the drama. |
This is one of the most iconic images of the series: the cranky and bend father preparing the young and beautiful son for the escape. Note the wind in the ropes – and especially the black rope behind Icarus as a bad omen of what’s to come.
I also like that Leighton has made some effort to present the Greek theme with the statue in the background as well as including a high place for a better takeoff.
Part of the Art Motive Series: "The Story of Daedalus and Icarus"
Click image for a bigger landscape.
Here Maestro Bruegel shows his great sense of drama as well as humor. Icarus and his death are a sidestory. A guy falling into the sea – so what? Bruegel condemns the young man to a tiny side story. Even the peasants in the image hardly take natice of what is happening.
Here is a excerpt from the wikipedia entry about this painting that explains the attitude behind this:
There is also a Flemish proverb (of the sort imaged in other works by Bruegel):"No plough stands still because a man dies". The painting may, as Auden’s poem suggests, depict humankind’s indifference to suffering by highlighting the ordinary events which continue to occur, despite the unobserved death of the mythic figure Icarus, who is seen drowning in the bottom right area of the sea. In Greek mythology, Icarus was the son of Daedalus, famous for his death by falling into the sea when he flew too close to the sun, melting the wax holding his artificial wings together. The sun, already half-set on the horizon, is a long way away; the flight did not reach anywhere near it.
Life is each human’s own tragedy!
Part of the Art Motive Series: "The Story of Daedalus and Icarus"
I love the colors in this painting. Also the concept of the flying head – like the idea of freedom is mostly in our heads and will always break free.
More? Redon entry @ Wikipedia
Part of the Art Motive Series: "The Story of Daedalus and Icarus"
This is the newest interpretation of this over 2000 year old story. In Chagall’s paintings there always seems to be the same village present.
It somehow looks rather like the competition by the village idiots, who can imitate Icarus the best.
Part of the Art Motive Series: "The Story of Daedalus and Icarus"
Another depiction of Icarus terrible end. His mighty wings broken. Curious and delicate sea-nymphs lament the young heroes death.
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1. Click player below to start the music. 2. Click the image to dive into the art. 3. Study for six minutes this great piece of art and all the sadness. |
This is one of the most iconic images of the series
For me this is the most dramatic painting in this series. It has a sleight Kitsch factor with the added sea nymphs, but they also contribute to the loss of vitality and sexuality of another brave soul lost to the gene pool.
I love Draper’s intricate painting of the wings – the biggest wings in all paintings in this collection.
Overall there is always the problem of confusing Icarus with an fallen angel. The idea of winged messengers from the gods is not an Christian invention, but we all associate the myth of fallen angels with such scenes. I have seen this painting (ab)used once in a Christian blog … ah, the pagan irony …
More? Herbert Draper’s entry @ Art Renewal and the tiny Wikipedia entry
Part of the Art Motive Series: "The Story of Daedalus and Icarus"
The attempt has failed. Icarus has crashed and died. All his fathers inventiveness and all his warnings couldn’t protect and save the youth from his own cockiness. The tragedy is double – Daedalus will escape and survive. But this death will forever plague his soul.
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1. Click player below to start the music. 2. Click the image to dive into the art. 3. Study for three minutes this great piece of art and all the drama. |
We see young Icarus twisted and mangled by the impact. All his grace, power and youth is gone. All that remains is broken bones and flesh.
More? Paul-Ambroise Slodtz Art Renewal entry
Part of the Art Motive Series: "The Story of Daedalus and Icarus"
Click image for a bigger apple and arrow …
The title derives from Latin literature and means ‘Venus, turner of hearts’. This is the Sonnet he wrote for this painting:
She hath the apple in her hand for thee,
Yet almost in her heart would hold it back;
She muses, with her eyes upon the track
Of that which in thy spirit they can see.
Haply, ‘Behold, he is at peace,’ saith she;
‘Alas! the apple for his lips, – the dart
That follows its brief sweetness to his heart,-
The wandering of his feet perpetually!’A little space her glance is still and coy;
But if she give the fruit that works her spell,
Those eyes shall flame as for her Phrygian boy.
Then shall her bird’s strained throat the woe foretell,
And her far seas moan as a single shell,
And through her dark grove strike the light of Troy.
Poetry and image information taken from here.
More? Rossetti @ ArtRenewal.org or @ Wikipedia
Hey Stumblers … don’t forget to check out the other Rossetti paintings below.
Click images for a more stunning Venus.
Once of the most iconic images of European art – and one of the greatest goddesses of all times. If you look around you we are surrounded by fit young and blonde Sisters of Venus these days.
Her breasts are a bit too small compared to the current beauty ideal and her facial expression is also a bit too innocent. We like our woman a bit more slutty these days.
Click image for a larger drama.
Gustave Dore is a giant. He created amazing illustrations and paintings. Too bad that modern publishers hardly illustrate their books anymore.
This was the last big Adventure movie made with Stop-Motion puppets. If you watch it today it’s cheesy and childish compared to all these computer generated action flicks. Even a decent episode of Xena or Hercules is better.
The list of actors is rather impressive: Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith and Ursula Andress. But even their greatness can’t help the bad script and usual Hollywood distortion of an old Greek myth (a norse Kraken has nothing to do with the Greek Titans).
I am still waiting for some TV show or movie series that tries to portrait Greek mythology in a good and serious manner! There are so many great stories waiting to be retold. But movies like ‘Troy’ or the above mentioned crappy Xena and Hercules certainly DON’T do these great tales ANY justice.
More? Wikipedia entry and watch the whole movie online.
Click image for an even mightier Jupiter.
What a monumental moment – although Jupiter (the Roman version of Zeus) looks a bit like wearing a wig? I love Ingres for his dramatic and powerful style. His creations have the same quality like movies – Ben Hur and the like.
You feel like being in the presence of Jupiter – almost touching that godly aura of his. And just in case you are wondering who Thetis is … visit this Wikipedia entry.
More? Ingres on Wikipedia
Most of our western culture is based on Greek and Roman ideas, symbols and philosophies. Like the nine Muses, which gave us the word for museum:
The word comes from the Latin museum, which is in turn derived from the Greek mouseion, which refers to a place or temple dedicated to the Muses, the patron divinities in Greek mythology of the arts.
Above is a bust of Calliope:
In Greek mythology, Calliope (”beautiful-voiced”) was the muse for epic poetry. She had two sons, Orpheus and Linus with Apollo. She was the oldest and wisest of the Muses. She was the judge in the argument over Adonis between Aphrodite and Persephone. She was represented by a stylus and wax tablets. – all quotes from Wikipedia
If find it especially interesting and tragic that she was the mother of Orpheus. His and Eurydice’s sad tale always moves me deeply …
Click image for a larger version.
Even Heroes need support. But not often in our lifes we receive the help of a divine intervention and extra special weapons for the task at hand.
From Wikipedia:
Perseus, or Perseos the legendary founder of Mycenae and of the Perseid dynasty there, was the first of the mythic heroes of Greek mythology whose exploits helped establish the hegemony of Zeus and the Twelve Olympians in the mainland of Greece. Perseus was the hero who killed Medusa.
After some time, Polydectes fell in love with Danae and desired to remove Perseus from the island. He thereby hatched a plot to send him away in disgrace. Polydectes announced a banquet wherein each guest would be expected to bring him a horse, that he might woo Hippodamia, “tamer of horses”. The fisherman’s protegé had no horse but promised instead to bring the head of Medusa, one of the gorgons, whose very expression turns people to stone. The Medusa was horselike in archaic representations (Kerenyi 1959:48), the terrible filly of a mare—Demeter, the Mother herself— who was in her mare nature when Poseidon assumed stallion form and covered her. The issue of her foaling were the gorgon sisters. Polydectes held Perseus to his rash promise.
For such a heroic quest, a divine helper would be necessary, and for a long time Perseus wandered aimlessly, without hope of ever finding the gorgons or of being able to accomplish his mission should he do so.
According to the iconography of the vase-painters, the gods Hermes and Athena came to his rescue. They did not know the way themselves, being of a younger generation of deities, but they knew ancient ones who would know; they led him to the Graeae, sisters of the gorgons, three perpetually old women with one eye and tooth among them. Perseus snatched the eye at the moment they were blindly passing it from one to another and would not return it until they had given him directions. He also received winged sandals, a magic wallet (kibisis), the cap of Hades that made one invisible, also known as the Cap of Darkness, an adamantine sickle such as the one that reaped the genitals of Uranus, and a mirrored shield. With all this, “Like a wild boar he entered the cave” where he came upon the sleeping gorgons. By viewing Medusa’s reflection in his shield he could safely approach and cut off her head. Seeing her own reflection in the shield, the Gorgon herself was turned to stone. The other two gorgons pursued him, but in his cap of invisibility he escaped.
1. Start Audioplayer below:
2. Click image for a much lager version.
3. Sacrifice five minutes of your life to really look at this painting.
I wonder if this was considered porn during it’s days?
I am actually very surprised that I hardly posted any paintings from this great Artist. First of all his style is dark, brutal and sensual – just adore it. You’ll hardly find another painter with such simple compositions, but such honest and direct execution of his stories.
Second – he is part of the Munich Secessions – so that’s home – so expect some more Stuck in this blog.
More? Artrenewal.org and Wikipedia
Apart from the nice Lady – all our psyches need to cleaned and relaxed in a steamy bath from time to time. Your psyche – like your body – needs care and proper maintenance. And make sure not to feed your many any crap that comes around – like your stomach it won’t digest bad mental food properly.
Women are dangerous – we all know that. But Mr Rossetti’s ladies are the most beautiful of them all. Although his type seems to be redheads. Oh well, more fire for him!
