#Mythological painters

[mote-historie]

Sandro Botticelli, Madonna and Child with St. John the Baptist, detail, c. 1470–1475.

Musée du Louvre, Paris, France. 

[moon-kissed-corner]

Details from the painting Medea meditating on killing her children (1852), by Bezzuoli.

[arinewman7]

Pandora

Charles-Amable Lenoir

1902

[mythical-redon]

By Charles Holloway (american, 1859-1941)

"A man and a woman in the forest"

[solcattus]

The three Graces, c. 1911

By Cesare Agostino Detti

[lionofchaeronea]

A scene from the Trojan War: Achilles and the Ethiopian king Memnon, son of Eos (Dawn), clash in single combat, flanked by chariots. This combat was recounted in the Aethiopis, a now-lost poem belonging to the Epic Cycle that continued the story of the Trojan War after the Iliad and Hector's death. As often, the relationship between literature and visual art is unclear: did the vase painter deliberately set out to illustrate the Aethiopis, or did poet and painter simply draw upon the same stock of traditional oral narrative?

Attic black-figure pyxis, in the manner of the C Painter; ca. 570 BCE. Now in the Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich, Germany.

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

William Adolphe Bouguereau (French, 1825-1905) L'Amour et Psyché, 1899

[thefugitivesaint]

Sigmund Lipinsky (1873-1940), 'Circe', 1904

[sardosycserokyric]

Penelope, Charles-François Marchal, c. 1868.

[da-pu-ri-to-jo-po-ti-ni-ja]

[eirene]

Cadmus beheld a female figure, wonderfully beautiful, 1921 Virginia Frances Sterrett

[pen-and-umbra]

The Deluge, Paul Merwart, c. 1900

[preraphaelitepaintings]

Narcissus

Artist: John William Waterhouse (English, 1849–1917)

Date: 1912

Material: Oil on canvas

Collection: Private collection

Description

John William Waterhouse is very famous for his use of the Pre-Raphaelite style. Most of his pieces express classical mythology, historical subjects, and British poetry. He is known for his great proficiency in oils and watercolors. Narcissus was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1912.

The exquisite oil painting on canvas displays a woman picking flowers in a field. According to the Greek mythology by Ovid, Narcissus was the son of the river god Cephissus and the nymph Liriope. Narcissus had been promised to live to an old age if only he would not look at his reflection, and so he rejected all women who fell in love with him and would not look at himself. Eventually, he was subdued by Echo, a woman who was deeply hurt by his rejection that she caused the Goddess Nemesis to strike Narcissus that he may look at his reflection in a pool and fall in love with himself. Narcissus then looked at his reflection in the pool till he died.

This story gives origin to the narcissus flower, which grew where Narcissus died. The flower grows almost anywhere but prefers well-drained soil with a sunny or light shade environment. The masterpiece of oil on canvas is set in a beautiful wooded landscape, seemingly with a stream and rocky edges. Wildflowers grow there too, and a young lady is bent picking them. Her countenance is downcast in the flowers. In her other hand, she holds a bunch of already picked flowers. She is dressed in a red dress, perhaps to symbolize love or a burning passion. The flowers she is picking are the narcissus flowers. Waterhouse was always keen to use colours, patterns, and simple objects for symbols of the old mythologies. The Narcissus would be no different. This wonderful work of art brings out his genius with the oils on canvas as he seemingly brings every aspect to life as rich in meaning.

Waterhouse was much influenced and inspired by Greek Mythology and works by Homer, Ovid, Shakespeare, and Keats, among other famous writers and poets from the time. His most common theme from these sources was femme fatale, the woman who ensnares a man. Most of Waterhouse's subjects were women from Greek Mythology, historical or literary texts. Often, he used live models, family, and friends to be his subjects, creating a great mix of the old and new as he used symbolism from the mythologies around current

[arinewman7]

Ilmatar

Robert Wilhelm Ekman

1860

[mythical-redon]

By Odilon Redon (French, 1840-1916)

"The Yellow Cape"

[solcattus]

A young faun picking grapes

By Heinrich Eddelien