Mythology: 2023-08-27

01 Work, Interpretation of the bible, Karl Ferdinand Sohn's Atoning Magdalene, with Footnotes #205

Carl Ferdinand Sohn

Atoning Magdalene, c. 1847

Oil on canvas

57,5 x 74cm 1847

Private collection

Estimated for €9,000 EUR - €10,000 EUR in May 2015

Mary Magdalene, literally translated as Mary the Magdalene or Mary of Magdala, is a figure in Christianity who, according to the Bible, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers. She is said to have witnessed Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection. Within the four Gospels she is named more than most of the apostles. Based on texts of the early Christian era in the third century, it seems that her status as an “apostle" rivals even Peter's.

The Gospel of Luke says seven demons had gone out of her. She is most prominent in the narrative of the crucifixion of Jesus, at which she was present. She was also present two days later when, she was, either alone or as a member of a group of women, the first to testify to the resurrection of Jesus. John 20 and Mark 16:9 specifically name her as the first person to see Jesus after his resurrection.

During the Middle Ages, Mary Magdalene was regarded in Western Christianity as a repentant prostitute or promiscuous woman, claims not found in any of the four canonical gospels. More Mary Magdalene

Karl Ferdinand Sohn (10 December 1805 in Berlin – 25 November 1867 in Cologne) was a German painter of the Düsseldorf school of painting.

He was born in Berlin and started his studies at the age of eighteen under Wilhelm von Schadow, whom he followed to Düsseldorf. He focused on mythical and poetic subjects of a highly romantic character, and painted in the idealistic manner of the Düsseldorf school.

He visited Italy (1830–1831) and adopted ideas from the works of the Venetians; Titian, Paolo Veronese, and Palma il Vecchio. In 1832, he was named a Professor at the Düsseldorf Academy, where he exercised an important influence.

Later, He painted biblical subjects, and then devoted himself to genre scenes, well characterized and of great coloristic charm.

At the age of nearly sixty-two Karl Ferdinand Sohn died on 25 November 1867 during a visit to his friend Ferdinand Hiller in Cologne. More on Karl Ferdinand Sohn

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02 Paintings, Irish deities, Henry Meynell Rheam's La Belle Dame sans Merci (Banshee), with footnotes # 43

Henry Meynell Rheam (1859-1920)

La Belle Dame sans Merci/ The beautiful lady without mercy (Banshee), c. 1901

Pencil, watercolour and bodycolour on paper laid on board

103⁄8 x 23 in. (26.4 x 58.5 cm.)

Private collection

Sold for GBP 3,780 in Jul 2022

John Keats's 1819 ballad La Belle Dame sans Merci provided inspiration for several Pre-Raphaelite artists, including John William Waterhouse, Arthur Hughes, Walter Crane and Frank Dicksee. Its subject is a fairy who seduces a knight with her eyes and singing voice, before lulling him to sleep and abandoning him on an empty hillside. The present watercolour depicts the moment when the fading knight dreams of the fairy he saw across the meadow, and his own initial approach to her on horseback. Meynell Rheam also made a much larger upright watercolour of the subject in 1901 (see below), in which the fairy stands over the dying knight in a misty clearing. More on this painting

Henry Meynell Rheam (1859-1920)

La Belle Dame sans Merci/ The beautiful lady without mercy (Banshee), c. 1897

Another version of La Belle Dame sans Merci

Watercolour on paper

24 × 57 cm

Unknown location

Henry Meynell Rheam (1859-1920), The eldest surviving son of a large Quaker family, with Yorkshire roots on both sides, he was born in Birkenhead on Merseyside. His father "became a successful hide and leather merchant" (Cartmell), and he went to boarding school in Weston-super-Mare. He was in Germany at some point, but in 1884 he went to Heatherly's school in London in 1884, and on from there in 1886 to the popular Académie Julian in Paris. Like so many young artists of that time, on his return to England he was attracted to the fishing villages and artists' colonies in Cornwall, moving first to Polperro and then to Newlyn.

Mainly a watercolourist, Rheam became part of the inner circle of the Newlyn School as Honorary Secretary of the Newlyn Society of Artists. He also made a name for himself in the wider art circle. The Cornish Masters website also tells us that "Rheam exhibited at the Royal Academy, was elected to the R.B.A. (Royal Society of British Artists) in 1889, and R.I. (Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours) in 1892 and exhibited regularly in all 3 institutions." Later on, he became more interested in fantasy and He was ony 61 when he died in nearby Penzance. — Jacqueline Banerjee

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4 Works, Contemporary interpretations of Olympian Deities, Thomas Saliot's Naiads, with Footnotes #7

Thomas Saliot, France

Naiads

Giclee on Fine Art Paper

8 W x 10 H x 0.1 D in

Private collection

In Greek mythology, the Naiads are a type of female spirit, or nymph, presiding over fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of fresh water.

They are distinct from river gods, who embodied rivers, and the very ancient spirits that inhabited the still waters of marshes, ponds and lagoon-lakes, such as pre-Mycenaean Lerna in the Argolis.

Naiads were associated with fresh water, as the Oceanids were with saltwater and the Nereids specifically with the Mediterranean, but because the ancient Greeks thought of the world's waters as all one system, which percolated in from the sea in deep cavernous spaces within the earth, there was some overlap. Arethusa, the nymph of a spring, could make her way through subterranean flows from the Peloponnesus, to surface on the island of Sicily. More on Naiads

Thomas Saliot, France

A bigger splash

Oil on Canvas

45.3 W x 55.1 H x 0.4 D in

Private collection

Thomas Saliot, France

Scuba buns

Giclee on Fine Art Paper

:8 W x 10 H x 0.1 D in

Private collection

Thomas Saliot, France

Summer sight Painting

Oil on Canvas

29.5 W x 35.4 H x 0.4 D in

Private collection

Thomas Saliot: "I live in Morocco, France and Spain where i paint simple iconic images from the net or my life, like big oil sketches. I have been painting professionally for over thirty years. Sort of a child of Hopper, figurative and Pop art, i love colors, provocation and big canvas.

Thomas Saliot was born in Paris, France, in 1968. He studied Graphic Design at the Met de Penninghen (Esag) for 3 years and opened his own gallery in le Marais in the historic district of Paris from 1990 to 2000. For the past 20 years he has been living the life, painting and travelling between Marrakech, Morocco and his home city of Paris, France. More on Thomas Saliot

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01 Work, Interpretation of the bible, Henry Le Jeune's Thy Will be Done, with Footnotes #201

Henry Le Jeune, A.R.A. (1819-1904)

Thy Will be Done

Oil on panel

113⁄8 x 93⁄8 in. (28.9 x 23.8 cm.)

Private collection

Sold for GBP 8,820 in Jul 2022

This depiction of the Agony in the Garden, on the Mount of Olives, in which, between the Last Supper and his arrest, Christ retired to pray. 'Agony' in this context derives from the Greek meaning a contest, and Le Jeune, through juxtaposing the solitary figure of Christ against the immensity of a luminous and starry heaven brilliantly alludes to the conflict between the two sides of Christ's nature: the human, that feared his imminent suffering, and would have avoided it, and the divine, which gave him strength. More on this painting

Henry Le Jeune ARA (12 December 1819 – 5 October 1904) was an English painter of landscapes, genre, literary and biblical scenes. He became well known for his genre paintings of children.

Le Jeune was born in London. After showing an early interest in art he was encouraged by his family to study the art collections in the British Museum.

He was admitted to the Royal Academy where, after winning 4 silver medals in succession, he won a gold medal in 1841 for the biblical painting "Samson Bursting his Bonds". He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1840 with a work entitled "Joseph Interpreting the Dream of Pharaoh's Chief Butler".

From 1845-48 he taught at the Government School of design at Somerset House, and from 1848-64 was curator and instructor at the Royal Academy. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy (ARA) in 1863 and an honorary retired associate in 1886.

Le Jeune painted in both oils and watercolours. His works were exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1840–94, at the British Institution between 1842–63, and at other galleries. More on Henry Le Jeune

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01 Work, Interpretation of the bible, Francesco Cairo's The Martyrdom of Saint Euphemia, with Footnotes #200

Francesco Cairo, Milan 1607 - 1665

The Martyrdom of Saint Euphemia

Oil on canvas

223.5 x 193 cm.; 88 x 76 in.

Private collection

Estimated for 15,000 - 20,000 GBP on July 2023

Euphemia, known as the All-praised in the Eastern Orthodox Church, is a Christian saint, who was martyred for her faith in 303 AD. According to Christian tradition, this occurred at Chalcedon.

According to tradition, Euphemia was arrested for refusing to offer sacrifices to Ares. She was thrown 'into a pit where there were three wild beasts so ferocious that they would swallow any man', but she was unharmed. An executioner was then sent to kill the maiden and to reward the headsman for his service, the judge draped him in a silk garment and girded him with a gold belt, but as the man went out, he was snatched by a lion and devoured.

After suffering various tortures, she died in the arena at Chalcedon from a wound sustained from a bear. Her tomb became a site of pilgrimages. She is commemorated on September 16. More on Euphemia

Chalcedon was an ancient maritime town of Bithynia, in Asia Minor.

Francesco Cairo (26 September 1607 – 27 July 1665) was an Italian Baroque painter active in Lombardy and Piedmont. He was born and died in Milan. It is not known where he obtained his early training though he is strongly influenced by the circle of il Morazzone, in works such as the Saint Teresa altarpiece in the Certosa di Pavia.

In 1633, Cairo moved to Turin to work as a court painter. Between 1637–1638, Cairo travelled to Rome, where he encounters the works of Pietro da Cortona, Guido Reni and of the Caravaggisti. He returns to Lombardy to complete altarpieces for the Certosa of Pavia and a church at Casalpusterlengo. Between 1646–1649, he returns to Turin, and paints an altarpiece for Savigliano and the church of San Salvario. He is also known as Il Cavalière del Cairo, because in Turin, he received the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus in recognition of his merit.

Many of his works are eccentric depictions of religious ecstasies; the saints appear liquefied and contorted by piety. He often caps them with exuberant, oriental turbans. More on Francesco Cairo

Because she was asked for help during the eruption of Mount Etna she is considered a protector against the outbreak of fire. She is also considered the patroness of bellmakers for an unknown reason -- though some speculate it may have something to do with the fact that bells were used as fire alarms. More on Francesco Cairo

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