Parmigianino (1503-1540) Cupido che fabbrica l’arco (Bowcarving Cupid) 1534–1539 Oil on lime, 135.5 × 65 cm Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna The inspiration for this painting may have come from a sculpture that Parmigianino may have seen in the Grimani Collection in Venice in…
Rubens, Peter Paul (1577-1640) The Four Rivers of Paradise c.1615 Oil on canvas, 208 × 283 cm Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna According to the conventional interpretation, the four continents are depicted here as female allegoric figures paired with the gods of their…
Tiziano (c.1488-1576) Bacco e Arianna (Bacchus and Ariadne) 1520–1523 Oil on canvas, 176.5 x 191 cm National Gallery, London Titian’s Bacchus and Ariadne is one of the finest and most famous paintings in the National Gallery. The Cretan princess Ariadne has…
Gentileschi, Orazio (1563-1639) Danae e la pioggia d’oro (Danae and the Shower of Gold) 1621–1623 Oil on canvas, 161.5 × 227.1 cm Getty Center, Los Angeles This painting is part of a series of works executed by Gentileschi in 1622 for…
Gentileschi, Orazio (1563-1639) Danae c.1623 Oil on canvas, 162 x 228.5 cm Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland The gauzy scarf draped over Danaë was a studio prop present in many of Orazio‘s paintings. Danaë’s father feared a prophecy that his grandson…
David, Jacques-Louis (1748-1825) Cupidon et Psyché (Cupid and Psyche) 1817 Oil on canvas, 184.2 x 241.6 cm Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland Jacques-Louis David included two butterflies in this painting: one above the slumbering Psyche and the other on the base…
Rembrandt (1606-1669) Jupiter and Antiope 1659 Etching, 13.9 x 20.1 cm Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam Rembrandt depicts the slumbering Antiope so convincingly that it seems he is drawing a model actually sleeping soundly. She lies in a totally relaxed pose, her lips parted and her…
Picasso, Pablo (1881-1973) Faune dévoilant une dormeuse / Jupiter et Antiope, d’après Rembrandt (Faun Revealing a Sleeping Woman/Jupiter and Antiope, after Rembrandt) 1936 Etching and aquatint on paper, 31.6 x 41.7 cm Tate Britain, London Pablo Picasso’s Faun Revealing a Sleeping…
Turner, Joseph Mallord William (1775-1851) Mars and Venus, after Guercino 1802 Graphite on paper, 12.8 × 11.4 cm Tate Britain, London Compare: Guercino (1591-1666) Venere, Marte e Amore 1633 Galleria Estense, Modena
Bouguereau, William-Adolphe (1825-1905) L’enlèvement de Psyché (The Abduction of Psyche) 1895 Oil on canvas, 209 x 120 cm Private collection See also: • Apuleius (c.124-c.170): Psyche et Cupido (Latin)