Mar 2
Ariadne Asleep on the Island of Naxos (1808-1812) by John Vanderlyn (American, 1775 – 1852), oil on canvas, 175 cm (68.8 in) x 224 cm (88.1 in), Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia
#Ariadne Asleep on the Island of Naxos#John Vanderlyn#painting#my upload#oil on canvas#art#fine art#19th century#neoclassical#mythology#ariadne#Naxos#theseus#bacchus#The moment Vanderlyn depicted in his monumental canvas was the point when Theseus was reaching his boat to make his getaway#Ariadne nude and in what appears to be a post-coital slumber lies upon a red drapery her arms raised to her head#In a painting largely filled with muted earth tones this red blanket gathers the visual attention of the viewer#white sheet wraps around upper thigh. It both conceals and at the same time brings attention to her nudity. Her body#which Vanderlyn has painted a pale milky-white value—contrasts with the North American-like landscape in which she reclines#In the right middle ground one can see the minutely painted boat Theseus boards in order to abandon Ariadne#Daughter of Minos and Pasiphae deserted on the Island of Naxos#An ideal of female beauty reposing upon the luxury of its own sensation lost in sleep and yielding#with child-like self-abandonment to dreams of love
