01 Contemporary Interpretations of Olympian deities, with footnotes #16

Gabrielle Bakker
Eurytus and Hippodamia
Private collection


The theme of the painting is taken from Ovid. The Lapiths, a peace-loving people of Thessaly, were celebrating the wedding of their king Pirithous to Hippodamia. The Centaurs were invited but they quickly began to misbehave. One of them, Eurytus, full of liquor, tried to carry off the bride and soon a battle raged in which drinking vessels, table legs, antlers, in fact anything to hand, served as weapons. Blood and brains were scattered everywhere. Finally, thanks chiefly for Theseus, the friend of Pirithous, who was among the guests, the Centaurs were driven off. To the ancients and to the Renaissance the theme symbolized the victory of civilization over barbarism. It was used to decorate Greek temples, notably the metopes of the Parthenon (the 'Elgin marbles'), and was popular with baroque painters. More on Eurytus and Hippodamia

Born in Ann Arbor, MI, in 1958, Gabrielle Bakker attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, graduating with a BFA in 1982. She continued her study at Yale University, where she studied under William Bailey and received her MFA in 1984. Since then she has been awarded the Pollack-Krasner Foundation Grant and the Academy Award in Painting from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She has exhibited at the Laguna Museum, CA; Frye Art Museum, Seattle; Earl McGarth Gallery, NYC; Mincher/Wilcox Gallery, San Francisco; and the Dart Gallery in Chicago. Bakker’s work is in the public collections of the HBO Coporation, Chicago, the Santa Baraba University Museum, the San Jose Art Museum, and the Art Institue of Chiacgo. She currently lives and works in Seattle. More on Gabrielle Bakker




Please visit my other blogs: Art CollectorMythologyMarine ArtPortrait of a Lady, The Orientalist, and The Canals of VeniceAnd visit my Boards on Pinterest

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.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.



Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

No comments:

Post a Comment