Perseus and Andromeda: The 19th century

We turn now to the 19th century in our exploration of the story of Perseus and Andromeda.



Ingres's painting shown above was painted around about 1819. It is now in a private collection. (used under creative commons licence, courtesy of www.jeanaugustedominiqueingres.org)



In 1840 Theodore Chasseriau produced the painting above, which is now in Paris's Louvre. (public domain picture from commons.wikimedia.org)



Eugene Delacroix's Andromeda was painted in 1852. It is now in Houston's Museum of Fine Arts but does not appear to be on their website. (used under creative commons licence, courtesy of www.eugenedelacroix.org)





Two artists painted Andromeda in 1869. The upper picture is by Gustave Dore. I haven't been able to find out its present whereabouts, so I assume it's probably in a private collection somewhere. The lower picture is by Edward Poynter and is now in London's Tate Britain. (both pictures are in the public domain and come from commons.wikimedia.org)



Around the same time Gustave Moreau produced the above picture, which is now in the Bristol City Gallery, but not on their website. (public domain picture from www.the-athenaeum.org))



Lord Frederic Leighton's picture dates to 1891 and is now in Liverpool's Walker Art Gallery. (public domain picture from www.museumsyndicate.com)

Semele

Ovid's next story is about Semele, one of Jupiter's mortal loves. Juno persuaded Semele to ask Jupiter to show himself to her in all his glory, and she got blasted.

Our first look at the story is this 1550s work attributed to Tintoretto and now in London's National Gallery. In the next century, Rubens also produced a Jupiter et Sémélé as part of a series of paintings on mythological themes. It is now in Brussels' Royal Museum of Fine Arts. Jan Voorhout (1647 - 1723) produced the undated picture below, now in the collection of Germany's Universität Göttingen.






In 1744 Handel wrote his opera Semele to a libretto written by Congreve for an earlier opera by John Eccles. The libretto was adapted for Handel by Newburgh Hamilton, who used some of Pope's verse in his adaptation. Those in the right part of the world at the right time might like to know that Handel's Semele is going to be performed at the Pacific Opera Victoria in British Columbia. Their website for this performance has a synopsis and video highlights of other performances of Handel's work. More unusually, here is a performance of an aria from Eccles's version.



Gustave Moreau painted two versions of Jupiter and Semele, shown below. Both are in the Musée Gustave Moreau. The left painting is slightly earlier, produced around 1890, while the one on the rightcomes from 1894 or 1895.




The Scottish artist John Duncan (1866-1945) painted this undated picture of Semele (click on the second picture from the right in the top row) by herself. Jupiter is not present, only Semele in flames.

Europa - the 18th and 19th Centuries

After previous posts covering Europa in the 15th and 16th centuries and in the 17th century, I'd like to move on to the 18th and 19th centuries.

These two pictures were painted around 1720, the one on the left by Tiepolo (now in Venice's Galleria dell'Academia but not on their website) and the one on the right by Ricci (now in Rome's Palazzo Taverna, no website, but see this view and further information (click on loudspeaker for audio commentary as well) from when the picture was exhibited at the National Gallery of Australia).

Ferretti painted a Rape of Europa from 1728 to 1737. It is now in Florence's Galleria Uffizi, though it was displayed for a long time in the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Parliament, whose website shows the central part of the picture. A better reproduction can be seen at the Web Gallery of Art. At much the same time, Boucher also painted a Rape of Europa, now in London's Wallace Collection.





Shortly afterwards in 1750, Pierre painted this version, now in the Dallas Museum of Art (not possible to link directly -- go to View, then Collections and search for Abduction of Europa).



Gustave Moreau seems to have painted Europa at least five times in the last third of the 19th century though hard and fast information is hard to come by. The above picture is in Moreau's former home, which he left to the nation and is now the Musée Gustave-Moreau (not on the museum's website but in the French Ministère de Culture's Jaconde database, together with another picture of Europa -- to see studies towards these pictures click on the 1 near the bottom of the page).



This version of Europa by Moreau is in Hartford's Wadsworth Atheneum, again not on the museum's website. Moreau did other paintings of Europa, one of which is now in Paris's Musée d'Orsay and another one in Rouen's Musée de Beaux-Arts (not on the Museum's website but on this commercial site).

An 1872 terracotta of Europa and the Bull by Louis Hubert-Noel is now in South Carolina's Columbia Museum of Art. (All illustrations in the public domain via wiki commons media)