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 was the daughter of Althaea and her husband Oeneus, the king of Calydon. Deianira was associated with combat, and was described as someone who "drove a chariot and practiced the art of war."
GOSSART, Jan (b. ca. 1478, Maubeuge, d. 1532, Middelburg)
Hercules and Deianira, c. 1517
Oil on oak panel
37 x 27 cm
Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham
The classical hero Hercules is shown embracing his wife Deianira. Their seat is decorated with images of his heroic exploits including the defeat of the Nemean lion and his victory over Antaeus. Their erotic encounter, however, is doomed. Deianira sits on the silver cloak given to her by the evil centaur Nessus. When Hercules wears it he will be engulfed in flames and die. Gossaert visited Italy in 1508/1509. On his return he was the first artist in the Netherlands to produce classical subjects with nude figures.. More on this painting
Jan Gossaert (c. 1478 – 1 October 1532) was a French-speaking painter from the Low Countries also known as Jan Mabuse (the name he adopted from his birthplace, Maubeuge) or Jennyn van Hennegouwe (Hainaut), as he called himself when he matriculated in the Guild of Saint Luke, at Antwerp, in 1503. He was one of the first painters of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting to visit Italy and Rome, which he did in 1508–09, and a leader of the style known as Romanism, which brought elements of Italian Renaissance painting to the north, sometimes with a rather awkward effect. He achieved fame across at least northern Europe, and painted religious subjects, including large altarpieces, but also portraits and mythological subjects, including some nudity.
From at least 1508 he was apparently continuous employed, or at least retained, by quasi-royal patrons, mostly members of the extended Habsburg family, heirs to the Valois Duchy of Burgundy. These were Philip of Burgundy, Adolf of Burgundy, Christian II of Denmark when in exile, and Mencía de Mendoza, Countess of Nassau, third wife of Henry III of Nassau-Breda.
He was a contemporary of Albrecht Dürer and the rather younger Lucas van Leyden, whom he knew, but he has tended to be less highly regarded in modern times than they were. Unlike them, he was not a printmaker, though his surviving drawings are very fine, and are preferred by some to his paintings. More on Jan Gossaert
Deianira was the mother of Hyllus, Glenus, Onites, Ctesippus, and Macaria, who saved the Athenians from defeat by Eurystheus.
PÉCHEUX, Laurent
Nessus and Deianira
Oil on canvas
Galleria Sabauda, Turin
Laurent Pécheux (17 July 1729 – 1821 Turin) was a French-born painter, active in Rome and Northern Italy in a Neoclassical-style.
Born in Lyon, France, Pécheux initially studied at the Jesuit College, but was sent to Paris where he frequented the studio of Charles-Joseph Natoire, Jean-Baptiste Pillement, and Jean-Antoine Morand. In 1751, the artists Gabriel-François Doyen and Augustin Pajou, winners of the Prix de Rome in 1748, convinced him to go to Rome. He obtained money from his father and arrived in 1753.
There, at the invitation of Nicolas Guibal, he frequented the studio of Anton Raphael Mengs. He also befriended Pompeo Batoni. He lived circa 1757 in the neighborhood of Trinità dei Monti, and there set up a teaching studio.
He was recruited in 1765 to paint a portrait of Princess Maria Luisa of Bourbon-Parma for the family of her fiancé, the Prince of Asturias, who would later become Charles IV of Spain. In 1777, Pécheux taught painting at the Accademia Albertina of Turin. He died in Turin. The pastellist Teresa Boccardi Nuytz was a pupil. He was also a tutor in Turin of the painter Giuseppe Monticone More on Laurent Pécheux
The subject is taken from Ovid (Met. 9:101-133). On a journey, Hercules and Deianira came to a river where the centaur Nessus was the ferryman. While carrying Deianira across he attempted to ravish her. Hercules, already on the further bank, drew his bow and slew Nessus.
Paolo Caliari, called Veronese (1528 Verona - 1588 Venice) - GND
Hercules, Dejanira and the centaur Nessus
Oil on canvas
68.4 × 53.4 × 2.2cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, picture gallery
Here an episode from ancient mythology is shown: 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. More on this painting
Paolo Caliari, known as Paolo Veronese (1528–1588), was an Italian Renaissance painter, based in Venice, known for large-format history paintings of religion and mythology, such as The Wedding at Cana (1563) and The Feast in the House of Levi (1573). Included with Titian, a generation older, and Tintoretto, a decade senior, Veronese is one of the “great trio that dominated Venetian painting of the cinquecento” and the Late Renaissance in the 16th century. Known as a supreme colorist, and after an early period with Mannerism, Paolo Veronese developed a naturalist style of painting, influenced by Titian.
His most famous works are elaborate narrative cycles, executed in a dramatic and colorful style, full of majestic architectural settings and glittering pageantry. His large paintings of biblical feasts, crowded with figures, painted for the refectories of monasteries in Venice and Verona are especially famous, and he was also the leading Venetian painter of ceilings. Most of these works remain in situ, or at least in Venice, and his representation in most museums is mainly composed of smaller works such as portraits that do not always show him at his best or most typical.
He has always been appreciated for "the chromatic brilliance of his palette, the splendor and sensibility of his brushwork, the aristocratic elegance of his figures, and the magnificence of his spectacle", but his work has been felt "not to permit expression of the profound, the human, or the sublime", and of the "great trio" he has often been the least appreciated by modern criticism. Nonetheless, "many of the greatest artists ... may be counted among his admirers, including Rubens, Watteau, Tiepolo, Delacroix and Renoir." More on Paolo Caliari, known as Paolo Veronese
In Sophocles' account of Deianira's marriage, she was courted by the river god Achelous but saved from having to marry him by Heracles, who defeated Achelous in a wrestling contest for her hand in marriage.
Gustave Moreau (French, 1826 - 1898)
Dejanira (Autumn), c. about 1872–1873
Oil on panel
55.1 × 45.4 cm (21 11/16 × 17 7/8 in.)
J. Paul Getty Museum
Gustave Moreau contrasted the centaur's dark skin and muscular strength with Dejanira's pale flesh and graceful, lithe figure. The two figures resemble dancers performing a ballet rather than opponents struggling for sexual conquest. With its jagged mountains, the hazy, mysterious landscape provides an eerie background. Moreau was not interested in presenting detailed information about the setting or its elements; he chose instead to disintegrate forms, allowing them to give way to areas of color that suggest shapes.
The artist intended for Dejanira to belong to a set of pictures representing the changing seasons; the painting's autumnal palette of reds, oranges, browns, dark greens, and creamy whites conveys its other title, Autumn. Moreau described what he had in mind to the painting's first owner:
I have tried to render the harmony that may exist between the world of nature at a certain time of year and certain phases of human life. The centaur seeks to embrace this white and graceful form, which is about to escape him. It is a last gleam, a last smile of nature and life. Winter threatens. Night is coming on. It is autumn. More on this painting
Gustave Moreau (6 April 1826 – 18 April 1898) was a French Symbolist painter whose main emphasis was the illustration of biblical and mythological figures. Moreau was born in Paris. His father, Louis Jean Marie Moreau, was an architect, who recognized his talent. His first painting was a Pietà which is now located in the cathedral at Angoulême. He showed A Scene from the Song of Songs and The Death of Darius in the Salon of 1853. In 1853 he contributed Athenians with the Minotaur and Moses Putting Off his Sandals within Sight of the Promised Land to the Great Exhibition.
Moreau became a professor at Paris' École des Beaux-Arts in 1891 and among his many students were fauvist painters Henri Matisse and Georges Rouault. Jules Flandrin, Theodor Pallady and Léon Printemps also studied with Moreau.
During his lifetime, Moreau produced more than 8,000 paintings, watercolors and drawings, many of which are on display in Paris' Musée national Gustave Moreau at 14 rue de la Rochefoucauld (9th arrondissement). The museum is in his former workshop, and began operation in 1903. André Breton famously used to "haunt" the museum and regarded Moreau as a precursor of Surrealism. More on Gustave Moreau
Gaspare Diziani (1689–1767)
The Rape of Deianiera
Oil on canvas
Height: 62 cm (24.4 in); Width: 74 cm (29.1 in)
Private collection
The painting depicts Hercules aiming his arrow at the centaur Nessus as the latter attempts to abduct his wife Deianiera. This theme is not the most common among the tales of Hercules' deeds and adventures, yet Diziani painted scenes from this tale on at least two other occasions. One of these pictures, which is closely related to the present lot, is currently on view at the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Geneva. More on this painting
Gaspare Diziani (1689 – 17 August 1767) was an Italian painter of the late-Baroque or Roccoco period, active mainly in the Veneto but also in Dresden and Munich. His earliest training was in his native town of Belluno with Antonio Lazzarini. He then moved to Venice, to the studio of Gregorio Lazzarini and later that of Sebastiano Ricci.
Between 1710-1720, he painted a group of eight pictures that included the Mary Magdalene for the church of Santo Stefano in Belluno, and Entry into Jerusalem for San Teodoro in Venice. He also painted three frescoes on the Life of Saint Helena in the Scuola del Vin next to the church of San Silvestro. Diziani’s celerity and technical assurance are evident from preparatory oil sketches, where color has been applied in rapid and spirited strokes. More on Gaspare Diziani
In another version of the tale where she was described as the daughter of Dexamenus, Heracles raped her and promised to come back and marry her. While he was away, the centaur Eurytion appeared and demanded her as his wife. Her father being afraid, agreed but Heracles returning before the marriage had slayed the centaur and claimed his bride.
RENI, Guido (b. 1575, Calvenzano, d. 1642, Bologna)
The Rape of Deianira, c. 1617-19
Oil on canvas
239 x 193 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris
Guido Reni (4 November 1575 – 18 August 1642) was an Italian painter of high-Baroque style. Born in Bologna into a family of musicians, Guido Reni was the son of Daniele Reni and Ginevra de’ Pozzi. As a child of nine, he was apprenticed under the Bolognese studio of Denis Calvaert. When Reni was about twenty years old he migrated to the rising rival studio, named Accademia degli Incamminati (Academy of the "newly embarked", or progressives), led by Lodovico Carracci. He went on to form the nucleus of a prolific and successful school of Bolognese painters who followed Annibale Carracci to Rome. Like many other Bolognese painters, Reni's painting was thematic and eclectic in style. More on Guido Reni
LAGRENÉE, Louis-Jean-François
The Centaur Nessus Abducting Deianira, c. 1755
Oil on canvas
Height: 157 cm (61.8 in); Width: 185 cm (72.8 in)
Musée du Louvre, Paris
The subject is taken from Ovid (Met. 9:101-133). On a journey, Hercules and Deianira came to a river where the centaur Nessus was the ferryman. While carrying Deianira across he attempted to ravish her. Hercules, already on the further bank, drew his bow and slew Nessus.
Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée (30 December 1724 - 19 June 1805) won the Prix de Rome in 1749 and spent 1750-54 at the Académie de France in Rome. On his return he was appointed a professor of the Académie Royale in Paris. From 1781 to 1785 he was Director of the Académie de France in Rome and the following year was made Recteur of the Académie Royale. Despite his service to the ancien règime, Lagrenée survived the upheavals of the French Revolution and crowned his career by being appointed a curator of the new national museums under Napoleon.
Lagrenée painted historical, mythological and religious works. He combined a slightly sentimental approach to his New Testament subject matter with a classicising style .
Like Joseph-Marie Vien and Jean-Baptiste Greuze, he turned away from mid-century rococo towards an early neoclassical manner characterised by cool colours, smooth technique and simple, refined composition. Lagrenée won important patrons both in France and abroad.
Lagrenée’s own manuscript, Livre de raison (Bibliothèque Doucet, University of Paris, gives an unusually detailed list of his paintings and patrons. He died in Paris in 1805. His brother Jean-Jacques Lagrenée (1739-1821), a history painter who became artistic director of the Manufacture de Sèvres, was his pupil.
The work of Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée is represented in the Louvre, Paris; the Petit Trianon, Versailles; the Château of Fontainebleau; the Hôtel de Ville, Dijon; Stourhead, Wiltshire and the Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe. More on Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée
A wild centaur named Nessus attempted to kidnap or rape Deianira as he was ferrying her across the river Euenos, but she was rescued by Heracles, who shot the centaur with a poisoned arrow. As he lay dying, Nessus persuaded Deianira to take a sample of his blood, telling her that a potion of it mixed with olive oil would ensure that Heracles would never again be unfaithful.
Bartholomäus Spranger (1546 Antwerpen - 1611 Prag) - GND
Hercules, Deianeira and the Centaur Nessus
Oil on canvas
112 cm × 82 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Gemäldegalerie
The picture is part of a mythological cycle with love stories by Homer and Ovid on which Spranger had been working since the 1580’s as part of the decoration of the imperial rooms in Prague Castle. The Centaur Nessus has abducted Deianeira, the wife of Hercules. Hercules frees Deianeira by killing the centaur with an arrow. The complicated composition is evidence of Spranger’s profound knowledge of Giambologna’s sculptures. More on this painting
Bartholomeus Spranger or Bartholomaeus Spranger (21 March 1546 in Antwerp – 1611 in Prague) was a Flemish painter, draughtsman, sculptor, and designer of prints. Working in Prague as a court artist for the Holy Roman emperor Rudolf II, he responded to his patron's aesthetic preferences by developing a version of the extreme style, full of conceits, which has become known as Northern Mannerism. This style stressed sensuality, which was expressed in smoothly modeled, elongated figures arranged in elegant poses, often including a nude woman seen from behind. Spranger's unique style combining elements of Netherlandish painting and Italian influences, in particular the Roman Mannerists, had an important influence on other artists in Prague and beyond as his paintings were disseminated widely through prints. More on Bartholomeus Spranger
Deianira believed his words and kept a little of the potion by her. Heracles fathered illegitimate children all across Greece and then fell in love with Iole. When Deianira thus feared that her husband would leave her forever, she smeared some of the blood on Heracles' famous lionskin shirt.
Coypel, Noël
Deianira sending the poisoned shirt of Nessus to Hercules, c. 1688-1699
Oil on canvas
H. 108.2; L. 172 cm. frame: H. 120; L. 184
Musée de Versailles, Versailles, France
Evelyn De Morgan (1855–1919)
Deianira, circa 1878
Oil on canvas
Private collection
Evelyn De Morgan (30 August 1855 – 2 May 1919) was an English painter whose works were influenced by the style of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. Her paintings exhibit spirituality; use of mythological, biblical, and literary themes; the role of women; light and darkness as metaphors; life and death; and allegories of war.
In 5 March 1887, Evelyn married the ceramicist William De Morgan. They spent their lives together in London. De Morgan, a pacifist, expressed her horror at the First World War and the South African War in over fifteen war paintings including The Red Cross and S.O.S.
Relative to artistic pursuits, money was unimportant to the De Morgans; any profits from sales of Evelyn's paintings went toward financing William’s pottery business and she actively contributed ideas to his ceramics designs. More on Evelyn De Morgan
Heracles' servant, Lichas, brought him the shirt and he put it on. The centaur's toxic blood burned Heracles terribly, and eventually, he threw himself into a funeral pyre. In despair, Deianira committed suicide by hanging herself or with a sword. More on The Rape of Deianira
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