#mythological characters

[allegorypaintings]

An Allegory with Venus and Cupid

Artist: Bronzino (Agnolo di Cosimo) (Italian, 1503-1572)

Date: c. 1545

Medium: Oil on wood

Collection: The National Gallery, London, United Kingdom

[mythologypaintings]

Dance of Mythological Characters and Villagers

Artist: Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577-1640)

Date: 1630-1635

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, Spain

[mythologypaintings]

Acis and Galathea

Artist: Pompeo Batoni (Italian, 1708-1787)

Date: 1761

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: National Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark

Description

Acis and Galatea are characters from Greek mythology later associated together in Ovid's Metamorphoses. The episode tells of the love between the mortal Acis and the Nereid (sea-nymph) Galatea; when the jealous CyclopsPolyphemus kills Acis, Galatea transforms her lover into an immortal river spirit.

[mythologypaintings]

Venus Brings Healing Herbs to the Wounded Aeneas

Artist: Hendrik Krock (Danish, 1671 – 1738

Date: 1706

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark

Description

In Virgil's Aeneid (Book XII), the goddess Venus heals her son, the Trojan hero Aeneas, after he is wounded by an arrow in battle. She secretly brings Cretan dittany (Dictamnus), a medicinal herb, and adds it to the healer Iapyx’s water to instantly cure the wound and restore his strength, allowing him to return to battle.

[mythologypaintings]

Venus

Artist: Jacques de Gheyn (Dutch, 1565-1629)

Date: 1605-1610

Medium: Oil on panel

Collection: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

[allegorypaintings]

True Glory Rests upon Virtue (center). Mars, Crowned by Victory, Listening to Moderation, Halts his Steeds and Lowers his Javelins (left). Time raises Truth to the Steps of the Throne, Wisdom Receives her There, a Nascent Genius Listens, the Royal Arms are at her Feet (right).

Artist: Antoine-Jean Gross (French, 1771-1835)

Date: 1827

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Louvre Museum, Paris, France

[mythologypaintings]

Bacchus, Temperance and Cupid

Artist: Giovanni Maria Bottalla (Italian, 1613–1644)

Date: 1640-1642

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Private Collection

Bottalla was a student of Pietro da Cortona, but temperamentally he was a much more classicising painter than his master, influenced by the art of the High Renaissance, Annibale Carracci's Farnese ceiling and the work of his contemporaries in Rome such as Poussin.