Peter Paul Rubens, 1577 - 1640
Romolo e Remo/ Romulus and Remus, c. 1615/1616
Oil on Canvas
w2120 x h2130 cm
The Capitoline Museums, Rome, Italy
The canvas painting was created in the middle of the second decade of the seventeenth century in Antwerp, where the artist settled upon his return to Italy. In fact, Rubens was one of the first foreign artist in the seventeenth century that had long, fruitful Italian experience from 1600 to 1608. In the painting, the central group derives from an ancient sculpture of the She-wolf and the twins next to the Tiber River. The artist saw and drew this sculpture group in the Vatican. More on this canvas
In Roman mythology, Romulus and Remus are twin brothers, whose story tells the events that led to the founding of the city of Rome and the Roman Kingdom by Romulus. The killing of Remus by his brother, and other tales from their story, have inspired artists throughout the ages. Since ancient times, the image of the twins being suckled by a she-wolf has been a symbol of the city of Rome and the Roman people. Although the tale takes place before the founding of Rome around 750 BC, the earliest known written account of the myth is from the late 3rd century BC. Whether the twins' myth was an original part of Roman myth or a later development is a subject of ongoing debate. More on Romulus and Remus
Sir Peter Paul Rubens (28 June 1577
– 30 May 1640) was a Flemish Baroque painter. A proponent of an
extravagant Baroque style that emphasized movement, colour, and sensuality,
Rubens is well known for his Counter-Reformation altarpieces, portraits,
landscapes, and history paintings of mythological and allegorical subjects.
In addition to running a large studio in Antwerp that
produced paintings popular with nobility and art collectors throughout Europe,
Rubens was a classically educated humanist scholar and diplomat who was
knighted by both Philip IV of Spain and Charles I of England. More Sir Peter Paul
Rubens
Jules-Élie Delaunay, (1828-1891)
Ixion precipitated in Hell, c. 1876
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes
Punishment of Ixion. Ixion married Dia, a daughter of Deioneus and
promised his father-in-law a valuable present. However, he did not pay the
bride price, so Deioneus stole some of Ixion's horses in retaliation. Ixion
concealed his resentment and invited his father-in-law to a feast at Larissa.
When Deioneus arrived, Ixion pushed him into a bed of burning coals and
wood.
Ixion went
mad, defiled by his act and thereafter, Ixion lived as an outlaw and was
shunned. By killing his father-in-law, Ixion was reckoned the first man guilty
of kin-slaying in Greek mythology. That alone would warrant him a terrible
punishment.
However,
Zeus had pity on Ixion and brought him to Olympus and introduced him at the
table of the gods. Instead of being grateful, Ixion grew lustful for Hera,
Zeus's wife. Zeus found out about his intentions and made a cloud in the shape
of Hera, and tricked Ixion into coupling with it. From the union of Ixion and
the false-Hera cloud came Centauros, engendering the race of Centaurs.
Ixion was expelled from Olympus and blasted with a
thunderbolt. Zeus ordered Hermes to bind Ixion to a winged fiery wheel that was
always spinning. Therefore, Ixion is bound to a burning solar wheel for all
eternity, at first spinning across the heavens, but in later myth transferred
to Tartarus. More
on Punishment of Ixion
Jules-Élie Delaunay (June 13, 1828 – September 5, 1891) was a French academic painter. He was born at Nantes in the Loire-Atlantique département of France. Delaunay studied under Flandrin, and at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris under Lamothe. He worked in the classicist manner of Ingres until, after winning the Prix de Rome, he went to Italy; in 1856, and abandoned the ideal of Raphaelesque perfection for the sincerity and severity of the quattrocentists.
After his return from Rome he was entrusted with many important commissions for decorative paintings, such as the frescoes in the church of St Nicholas at Nantes; the three panels of Apollo, Orpheus and Amphion at the Paris Opera house; and twelve paintings for the great hall of the council of state in the Palais Royal.
In the last decade of his life he achieved great popularity as a portrait painter. He was awarded a first-class medal at the Paris Exposition of 1878, and the medal of honor in 1889. In 1878 he became an officer of the Legion of Honor, and the following year was made a member of the Institute. More on Jules-Élie Delaunay
Isaac Moillon, PARIS 1614 - 1673
THE RAPE OF HELEN
Oil on canvas
141,5 x 109 cm ; 55 3/4 by 43 in
Private collection
In Greek
mythology, Helen of Troy, also known as Helen of Sparta, or simply Helen, was
the daughter of Zeus and Leda, and was a sister of Clytemnestra, Castor and
Pollux. In Greek myths, she was considered the most beautiful woman in the
world.
Two Athenians, Theseus and Pirithous, thought that since
they were both sons of gods, both of them should have divine wives; they thus
pledged to help each other abduct two daughters of Zeus. Theseus chose Helen,
and Pirithous vowed to marry Persephone, the wife of Hades. Theseus took Helen
and left her with his mother Aethra. More on the rape of Helen
Isaac Moillon, (1614-1673), was one of the Louis XIV's painters - 'Peintre du
roi'- and produced a number of cartoons for the tapestry industry in Aubusson,
which was under Royal patronage. They included the suite of tapestries of a
series of more than eight tapestries telling the Story of Paris and Helen,
executed before 1654. Several of these suites still exist and are conserved in
the Swedish Royal collection, the Hospices de Beaune in France, the chateaux of
Barbentane and of Villemonteix and in the museum of Aubusson. More on Isaac Millon
François Perrier, PONTARLIER, 1594 - 1649 PARIS
JUPITER AND SEMELE
Oil on canvas
160 x 96 cm ; 63 by 37 3/4 in
Private collection
Semele was a priestess of JUPITER /Zeus, and on one occasion was observed by Zeus as she slaughtered a bull at his altar and afterwards swam in the river Asopus to cleanse herself of the blood. Flying over the scene in the guise of an eagle, Zeus fell in love with Semele and repeatedly visited her secretly.
Zeus' wife, Hera, a goddess jealous of usurpers, discovered his affair with Semele when she later became pregnant. Appearing as an old crone, Hera befriended Semele, who confided in her that her lover was actually Zeus. Hera pretended not to believe her, and planted seeds of doubt in Semele's mind. Curious, Semele asked Zeus to grant her a boon. Zeus, eager to please his beloved, promised on the River Styx to grant her anything she wanted. She then demanded that Zeus reveal himself in all his glory as proof of his divinity. Though Zeus begged her not to ask this, she persisted and he was forced by his oath to comply. Zeus tried to spare her by showing her the smallest of his bolts and the sparsest thunderstorm clouds he could find. Mortals, however, cannot look upon the gods without incinerating, and she perished, consumed in lightning-ignited flame. More on Semele
Zeus rescued the fetal Dionysus, however, by sewing him into his thigh. A few months later, Dionysus was born. This leads to his being called "the twice-born".
When he grew up, Dionysus rescued his mother from Hades, and she became a goddess on Mount Olympus, with the new name Thyone, presiding over the frenzy inspired by her son Dionysus. More on Semele
François Perrier (1590–1650) was a French
painter, draftsman, and printmaker. Perrier was instrumental in introducing
into France the grand style of the decorative painters of the Roman
Baroque.
During the
years 1620–1625, he resided in Rome, where he took as his model the
practitioner of academic Baroque classicism, Giovanni Lanfranco. when he was
employed on the fresco decoration of the dome of S Andrea della Valle, one of
the earliest examples of Roman Baroque ceiling decoration.
On his
return to France, following a brief stay in Lyon he settled in Paris in 1630.
Here he worked in the classsicising circle of Simon Vouet. In 1632–1634.
Perrier returned to Rome in 1635, remaining there for the
next decade. During this period he created decorations for palazzo Peretti and
saw to the publication in Paris of his great repertory of images. In 1645, once
again in Paris he painted the ceiling of the gallery of the Hôtel de La
Vrillière, now the seat of the Banque de France, and worked with Eustache Le
Sueur on the cabinet de l’amour in the Hôtel Lambert. In 1648, he was one of
the twelve founders of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture. He died
in Paris. More
on François Perrier
Jules Joseph Lefebvre, 1834 - 1912
Diana surprised
Oil on canvas
National Museum of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires
The myth of Diana and Actaeon can be found within Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The tale recounts the unfortunate fate of a young hunter named Actaeon, and his encounter with chaste Artemis, known to the Romans as Diana, goddess of the hunt. The latter is nude and enjoying a bath in a spring with help from her escort of nymphs when the mortal man unwittingly stumbles upon the scene. The nymphs scream in surprise and attempt to cover Diana, who, in a fit of embarrassed fury, splashes water upon Actaeon. He is transformed into a deer with a dappled hide and long antlers, robbed of his ability to speak, and thereafter promptly flees in fear. It is not long, however, before his own hounds track him down and kill him, failing to recognize their master. More on the myth of Diana and Actaeon
Jules Joseph Lefebvre (14 March 1834 – 24 February 1912) was a French figure painter, educator and theorist.
Lefebvre was born in Tournan-en-Brie, Seine-et-Marne, on 14 March 1834. He
entered the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in 1852 and was a pupil
of Léon Cogniet.,He won the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1861. Between 1855 and
1898, he exhibited 72 portraits in the Paris Salon. In 1891, he became a member
of the French Académie des Beaux-Arts.
He was professor at the Académie Julian
in Paris. Lefebvre is chiefly important as an excellent and sympathetic teacher
who numbered many Americans among his 1500 or more pupils. Among his famous
students were Fernand Khnopff, Kenyon Cox, Félix Vallotton, Ernst Friedrich von
Liphart, Georges Rochegrosse, the Scottish-born landscape painter William Hart,
Walter Lofthouse Dean, and Edmund C. Tarbell, who became an American
Impressionist painter.
Lefebvre died in Paris on 24 February
1912. More on Jules Joseph Lefebvre
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, (1828–1882)
Venus Verticordia, c. 1864-1868
Oil on canvas
81.3 × 68 cm (32 × 26.8 in)
Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum
Venus Verticordia ("the changer of hearts") was an epithet of the Roman goddess Venus, alluding to the goddess' ability to change hearts from lust to chastity.
In the year 114 BC, three Vestal Virgins were condemned to death for transgressing with Roman knights the rigid law against sexual intercourse. To atone for their misdeeds, a shrine was dedicated to Venus Verticordia in the hope that she would turn the hearts of women and girls against licentiousness and towards chastity. Hence her name Verticordia, which means 'turner of hearts'. Under this title she was especially worshipped by married women, and on 1 April the Veneralia festival was celebrated in her honor. More on Venus Verticordia
In the 1860s, the Pre-Raphaelite movement splintered, with some of its adherents abandoning strict realism in favour of poetry and attractiveness. This move became explicit in Venus Verticordia (above), by Rossetti. Surrounding Venus, roses represent love, honeysuckle represents lust, and the bird represents the shortness of human life. She holds the Golden Apple of Discord and Cupid's arrow, thought to be a reference to the Trojan War and the destructiveness of love.
John Ruskin disliked the painting intensely. While it is now thought that his dislike of the painting was due to a dislike of the representation of the naked female form. Ruskin's hostility towards the painting led to a quarrel between Ruskin and Rossetti, and Rossetti drifted away from Pre-Raphaelite thinkings and towards the new doctrine of art for art's sake expounded by Algernon Charles Swinburne. More on this painting
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April
1882) was an English poet, illustrator, painter and translator. He
founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt and
John Everett Millais. Rossetti was later to be the main inspiration for a
second generation of artists and writers influenced by the movement. His work
also influenced the European Symbolists and was a major precursor of the
Aesthetic movement.
Rossetti's personal life was closely linked to his work,
especially his relationships with his models and muses Elizabeth Siddal, Fanny
Cornforth and Jane Morris. More on Dante
Gabriel Rossetti
William Edward Frost, SURREY 1810 - 1877 LONDRES, ÉCOLE ANGLAISE
FLORINDA
Oil on canvas
70 x 86 cm ; 27 1/2 by 37 3/4 in.
Private collection
In Roman mythology, Flora was a Sabine-derived
goddess of flowers and of the season of spring – a symbol for nature and flowers (especially the
may-flower). While she was otherwise a relatively minor figure in Roman
mythology, being one among several fertility goddesses, her association with
the spring gave her particular importance at the coming of springtime, as did
her role as goddess of youth. Her Greek counterpart was Chloris. More on Flora
William Edward Frost (September 1810 – 4 June 1877) was
an English painter of the Victorian era. Virtually alone among English artists
in the middle Victorian period, he devoted his practice to the portrayal of the
female nude.
Frost was
educated in the schools of the Royal Academy, beginning in 1829; he established
a reputation as a portrait painter before branching into historical and
mythological subjects, including the subgenre of fairy painting that was
characteristic of Victorian art. In 1839 he won the Royal Academy's gold medal
for his Prometheus Bound, and in 1843 he won a prize in the Westminster Hall
competition for his Una Alarmed by Fauns (a subject from Spenser's The Faerie
Queene). He was elected an associate member of the Royal Academy in 1846, and a
full member in 1870.
Frost is widely recognized as a follower of William Etty,
who preceded him as the primary British painter of nudes in the second quarter
of the nineteenth century. Despite the prudishness of the Victorian era,
Frost's relatively chaste nudes were popular, and his career was financially
successful. More on William
Edward Frost
Alexandre Cabanel, (French, 1823-1889)
The birth of Venus
signed 'ALEX.CABANEL' (lower right)
oil on board
35 x 27cm (13 3/4 x 10 5/8in)
Private collection
The Birth of Venus. In Roman mythology, Venus was the goddess of love,
sex, beauty, and fertility. She was the Roman counterpart to the Greek
Aphrodite. However, Roman Venus had many abilities beyond the Greek Aphrodite;
she was a goddess of victory, fertility, and even prostitution. According to
Hesiod's Theogony, Aphrodite was born of the foam from the sea after Saturn
(Greek Cronus) castrated his father Uranus (Ouranus) and his blood fell to the
sea. This latter explanation appears to be more a popular theory due to the
countless artworks depicting Venus rising from the sea in a clam. More The Birth of Venus
Alexandre Cabanel (28 September 1823 – 23
January 1889) was a French painter born in Montpellier, Hérault. He painted
historical, classical and religious subjects in the academic style. He was also
well known as a portrait painter. According to Diccionario Enciclopedico
Salvat, Cabanel is the best representative of the L'art pompier and Napoleon
III's preferred painter.
Cabanel
entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris at the age of seventeen, and studied
with François-Édouard Picot. He exhibited at the Paris Salon for the first time
in 1844, and won the Prix de Rome scholarship in 1845 at the age of 22. Cabanel
was elected a member of the Institute in 1863. He was appointed professor at
the École des Beaux-Arts in 1864 and taught there until his death.
He was closely connected to the Paris Salon:
"He was elected regularly to the Salon jury and his pupils could be
counted by the hundred. Through them, Cabanel did more than any other artist of
his generation to form the character of belle époque French painting". His
refusal together with William-Adolphe Bouguereau to allow the impressionist
painter Édouard Manet and many other painters to exhibit their work in the
Salon of 1863 led to the establishment of the Salon des Refusés by the French government.
Cabanel won the Grande Médaille d'Honneur at the Salons of 1865, 1867, and
1878. More on Alexandre Cabanel
Iva Troj, United Kingdom
Swan Daughter
Acrylic on canvas
15.7 H x 15.7 W x 0.4 in
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
Iva Troj seamlessly incorporates her vast experience of traditional painting techniques with postmodern elements to create engaging Renaissance-style works that challenge the notion of societal conformity. Born in Bulgaria, based in Scandinavia and the UK, Troj creates work originating fundamentally in the crossing of two realities: the one she grew up in and the one she has embraced.
“I’ve been told I have artistic talents since I was a little girl. The problem was I spent most of my time worrying about the meaning of it all. I grew up in a rough neighborhood, in the outskirts of Plovdiv. At times it felt like the whole place was full of violent men. My family was very strict, loving and protective of me so I managed to keep my head above water. More on Iva Troj
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