OVID’S METAMORPHOSES In Art!

(Why we, as artists, need to know this!)

Icarus

After Pieter Bruegel

the Elder, c. 1525-

1569

Landscape with the

Fall of Icarus, c.

1600?Canvas, 73.5 x 112 cm

Brussels

“Ovid’s story

conveys the

message that pride

comes before a fall,

Bruegel’s painting

proclaims that the

world moves on and

people live their

lives indifferent to

the suffering of

others.”

Icarus

Partridge

Citadel

“Here Matisse shows Icarus flailing in the deep

blue sky, his body in free fall. It’s a deeply tragic

moment of inevitable death, of destruction, of

collapse of hopes and ambitions, yet Matisse

creates an almost meditational composition. The

bursts of the yellow sunlight against the rich

blue of the sky are almost hypnotic. His Icarus

with a bright red spot in place of a heart is

mysterious and calm, free of anxiety or fear. This

beautiful, bold colorcould be interpreted as

Matisse’s way of depicting Icarus’ passion for

flying!”

Icarus

Henri Matisse

1947

Calumny of Apelles

Saundro Boticelli

1494

Midas

Ignorance

Suspicion

Slander

EnvyRepentance

Fraud & Conspiracy

Truth

The Death of Narcissus

Nicolas Poussin,

1630

Flowers bear his name

Echo

Orpheus and Eurydice

Peter Paul Rubens

1636-38

Cerebus

PlutoProserpine

In their 2013 album

"Reflektor", Arcade

Fire alludes to the tale of

Orpheus and Eurydice in

their songs "Awful Sound

(Oh Eurydice)" and "It's

Never Over (Hey Orpheus)".

Also, in his 2013 album "Man

and Myth," English folk-

rocker Roy

Harper describes many

elements of the story of

Eurydice and Orpheus in

the song "Heaven Is Here."

Pygmalion and Galatea

Jean-Léon Gérôme

1890

Between 1890 and 1893, Gérôme made both

painted and sculpted variations on the theme

of Pygmalion and Galatea, the tale recounted

in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. All depict the

moment when the sculpture of Galatea was

brought to life by the goddess Venus, in

fulfillment of Pygmalion’s wish for a wife as

beautiful as the sculpture he created. This is

one of three known versions in oil that are

likely based on a polychrome marble

sculpture, also fashioned by Gérôme (Hearst

Castle, San Simeon, Calif.). In each of the

paintings, the sculpture appears at a different

angle, as though it was being viewed in the

round.

“Colescott’s

painting Pygmalion (1987)

commands attention. In the center,

an elderly white male, presumably

Pygmalion, surveys the face of a

black woman whose chin he is

holding. In the words of Ovid:

“Pleas’d with his idol, he

commends, admires/Adores; and

last, the thing ador’d,

desires.”[3] Colescott emphasizes

that historical myths and images

are derived from white perception

of the Other, rather than a

reflection of black identity. A statue

of Venus de Milo is to the left of the

couple, and a portrait of Mona Lisa

as a black woman hangs over his

right shoulder. Colescott reworks

the canon of art, swapping the

white casts of characters for black

and pointing out the racist

repertoire of history.”

Robert Colescott. Pygmalion,

1987

Fresco of Pyramus and Thisbe from

the House of Octavius Quarto,

formerly called House of Loreius

Tiburtinus, Pompeii

Thisbe

John Waterhouse

1909

Niobe

JacquesLouisDavid

1772

Niobe

Andrzej Troc