Mythology Paintings

[mythologypaintings]

The Judgment of Paris

Artist: Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem (Dutch, 1562-1638)

Date: ca. 1585-1595

Medium: Oil on panel

Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, RI, United States

Description

The painting depicts the Greek myth where the Trojan shepherd Paris chooses Venus as the fairest goddess by awarding her a golden apple.

[mythologypaintings]

Perseus and Andromeda

Artist: French or Venetian School

Date: c. 1727-1760

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery, Exeter, England

Description

In the famous story from Greek mythology, Andromeda is chained to a rock on the shore as a sacrifice to a sea monster sent by Poseidon, God of the Sea. The hero Perseus appears on horseback just in time to save Andromeda from her death. Eros (Roman: Cupid) has also appeared situated between them both as a sign of there intense desire for each other. Perseus is depicted with wings on his ankles.

[mythologypaintings]

Venus and Adonis

Artist: Nicolas Poussin (French, 1594-1665)

Date: c. 1628

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, RI, United States

Description

French history painters relied on the literature, philosophy, and art of the ancient world as dominant resources. In this story, Venus has been pierced by Cupid’s arrow and fallen in love with the beautiful young hunter Adonis. They lie in each other’s arms, unaware that the clouds that shade them also portend danger. At left, a band of mischievous cherubs restrains a rabbit that will ultimately be killed by Adonis’s ferocious dog. Despite Venus’s warnings, Adonis also will die soon, the victim of an attack by a wild boar.

[mythologypaintings]

Zephyr and Flora

Artist: Michel II Corneille (French, 1642-1708)

Date: c. 1668

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Palace of Versailles, Paris, France

Description

Zephyr and Flora pair the Greek god of the west wind with the Roman goddess of flowers, representing spring's rebirth. In mythology, Zephyr (or Zephyrus) wins the nymph Chloris and transforms her into Flora, granting her power over blooms.

[mythologypaintings]

Neptune and Amymone

Artist: Charles-André Van Loo (French, 1705-1765)

Date: 18th century

Medium: Oil on paper mounted on wood

Collection: Louvre Museum, Paris, France

[mythologypaintings]

Love Leaving Psyche

Artist: Charles-André Van Loo (French, 1705-1765)

Date: 1744

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Palace of Versailles, Paris, France

Description

In the classic myth of Cupid and Psyche from Apuleius's ancient novel Metamorphoses, the god of love (Eros/Cupid) leaves Psyche after she breaks his trust by looking at his face with a lamp. This forces Psyche into exile and sets off her grueling trials.

[mythologypaintings]

Cupid Received by Anacreon

Artist: C.F. Høyer (Danish, 1775–1855)

Date: 1806

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Thorvaldsens Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark

Description

"Cupid Received by Anacreon" is an ancient Greek myth told in the odes of the poet Anacreon. In the story, an old poet opens his door to a freezing child on a stormy night. The child reveals himself to be Cupid, shoots the poet in the heart with an arrow, and proves that even the elderly are vulnerable to love.

[mythologypaintings]

Mars and Venus Surprised by Vulcan

Artist: Alexandre-Charles Guillemot (French, 1786–1831)

Date: 1827

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, Indianapolis, Indiana, United States

Description

The story of Mars and Venus Surprised by Vulcan is a mythological tale of passion and revenge about the affair between Venus, the goddess of love, and Mars, the god of war, and their discovery by Venus’ husband, Vulcan, the god of fire and the forge.

[mythologypaintings]

Venus Blindfolding Cupid

Artist: Vecellio Titian (Pieve di Cadore Italian, 1488/1490-1576)

Date: c. 1560-1565

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Borguese Gallery, Rome, Italy

[mythologypaintings]

Cupid and Psyche

Artist: Jacopo Zucchi (Italian, 1540/1541 - 1595/1596)

Date: 1589

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Borguese Gallery, Rome, Italy

Description

The painting represents a famous episode narrated by Apuleius in The Golden Ass (Metamorphoses). The extraordinarily beautiful Psyche decides to discover the identity of her young lover by entering his room carrying a razor and an oil lamp. As she approaches the body of the handsome god, she accidentaly lets fall a drop of boiling oil onto the boy’s shoulder. Upon awakening, he flies away.

[mythologypaintings]

The Return from War: Mars Disarmed by Venus

Artists: Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577-1640), and Jan Brueghel the Elder (Flemish, 1568-1625)

Date: c. 1610–1612

Medium: Oil on panel

Collection: Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA, United States

Description

Amid the disarray of Vulcan's forge, Venus leans into the embrace of her lover, Mars, who is transfixed by her alluring gaze. Caught up in his attraction to the aggressively seductive goddess, Mars is no longer able to carry out his military exploits. Venus removes his helmet, while mischievous putti cavort with his sword and shield.

[mythologypaintings]

Toilet of Venus

Artist: Michele Rocca (Italian, c. 1670-c. 1751)

Date: c. 1750

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: The Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, RI, United States

[mythologypaintings]

Aeneas Fleeing Troy

Artist: Federico Barocci (Italian, c. 1533 - 1612)

Date: 1598

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Borguese Gallery, Rome, Italy

Description

Aeneas Fleeing Troy depicts the mythological hero escaping the burning city of Troy alongside his father Anchises, son Ascanius, and wife Creusa.

[mythologypaintings]

Oedipus and Antigone

Artist: Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg (Danish, 1783–1853)

Date: 1812

Media: Oil on canvas

Collection: The National Museum in Stockholm, Sweden

Description

In Greek mythology Antigone is a Theban princess and a character in several ancient Greek tragedies. She is the daughter of Oedipus, king of Thebes; her mother is either Jocasta or, in another variation of the myth, Euryganeia. She is a sister of Polynices, Eteocles, and Ismene. The meaning of the name is, as in the case of the masculine equivalent Antigonus, “in place of one’s parents” or “worthy of one’s parents”.

[mythologypaintings]

Diana and Her Nymphs in a Landscape

Artist: Laurent de La Hyre (French, 1606–1656)

Date: 1644

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA, United States

[mythologypaintings]

Apollo

Artist: Luteri Giovanni called Dosso Dossi (Italian, c. 1487-1542)

Date: c. 1525

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Galleria Borguese, Rome, Italy

Description

The subject, which draws on the myth of Apollo and Daphne, is taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses (I, 452-467).

After having killed the monster Python, Apollo boasts about it to Cupid, mocking him for carrying a bow and arrow, unsuitable weapons for a child. Cupid takes his revenge by piercing Apollo with his arrows and arousing love in Apollo and the rejection of that love by the beautiful nymph Daphne: Apollo pursues her but the maiden pleads with her father, the river god Peneus, to release her from the body that arouses men's admiration. Daphne, barely visible in the background on the left, is being transformed into a laurel tree.

[mythologypaintings]

Anchises Bids Farewell to his Son Aeneas and the Sibyl Deiphobe at the Fates of Avernus

Artist: Wilhelm Bottner (German, 1752-1805)

Date: 1780

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Palazzo della Pilotta, Parma, Italy

Description

In Book 6 of Theoi Classical Texts Library (The Aeneid) by Virgil, Anchises does not say farewell at the entrance of the underworld; instead, arter guiding his son through Elysium and showing him the future souls of Rome. Anchises escorts Aeneas and the Sibyl (Deiphobë) to the Twin Gates of Sleep and sends them back to the living world through the Ivory Gate.