Danaë (Titian series)
Encyclopedia
The Danaë series comprises at least five oil-on-canvas paintings by the Venetian master Titian
, completed between 1553 and 1556. The works are based on the mythological
princess Danaë
. According to Ovid
she was isolated in a bronze dungeon following a prophecy that her firstborn would eventually kill her father. Although aware of the consequences, Danaë was seduced and became pregnant by Zeus
(in Roman mythology Jupiter
), who, inflamed by lust, descended from Mount Olympus
to entice her as a shower of gold.
The first version, now in Naples, was painted between 1544-46. Titian executed two later versions on commission from the art-loving Spanish monarch Philip II
. Titian and his workshop produced at least five versions of the painting, which vary to degrees. The dog resting at Danaë's side is absent in some versions, while her companion is a god in some and a hag
gish nursemaid in others. In all, Danaë is a depicted as a voluptuous figure. Her legs are open in all, with her left leg arched; this being a central painterly motif in each.
The works have been highly influential and affected the work of many artists including Rembrandt, Anthony van Dyck
and Gustav Klimt
, who all painted versions of the scene. According to the 16th C Italian historian Giorgio Vasari
, Michelangelo
saw the original and praised Titian's use of colour in the Madrid painting, though later, in private, was critical of Titian's draftsmanship.
consulted the oracle
on how he would get male children, he was told that his daughter would bear a son who would kill him. Acrisius then locked up and guarded his daughter Danaë in a subterranean dungeon. Danaë, aware of the consequences, allowed herself to be seduced and impregnated by Zeus, who persuaded her to lower her defences by appearing in the form of a shower of gold.
When Acrisius learned of Danaë's son Perseus
, he refused to believe Zeus's role, and cast mother and child adrift at sea in a chest. They landed at Seriphus, where Perseus was raised by Dictys
. Perseus eventually fulfilled the prophecy by killing Acrisius years after—although accidentally. There are a number of versions of Acrisius' death. In Pseudo-Apollodorus
' version, when Perseus learns of the oracle he goes into voluntary exile in Pelasgiotis
(Thessaly
), where Teutamides, king of Larissa
, is holding funeral games for his father. Perseus competes in the discus throw
, but his missile veers and strikes Acrisius, killing him instantly.
Danaë was seen in the Middle Ages and Renaissance as a symbol of the corrupting effect of wealth, which could taint even feminine beauty or moral virtue
. An epigrammist in the Greek Anthology
wrote of the legend of Danaë and Zeus:
, although she is given the facial features of a graceful contemporary Venetian lady. The 1544–1546 version suggests her fall from grace in a number of ways, including the presence of thunderous clouds, her now-complete nakedness, and the dog (sometimes used as a symbol of libertinism) curling to her left. The old woman's body is now turned fully towards the rain of gold, whereas Eros had his back to the skyscape, with his head turned back.
In each work, Danaë is shown naked or nearly naked, lying on a couch with her knees raised. Either a nursemaid or Eros
is to her right, holding out a cloth to catch the gold coins spilling down from an explosion of colour in the sky which represents Zeus. The left side of each canvas is an interior. In the Madrid painting, this area is rendered in warm sensual colours of brown and pink framed by purple velvet drapes; the right side of the canvas contains cooler grey and blue tones.
In the 1544–1546 version, the burst of light that showers coins and on which Danaë's heavy gaze falls is flanked by dark clouds that appear to be moving towards the centre of the canvas. They spill heavy rain, which falls parallel to Zeus's coins. In the Madrid version, Eros has been replaced by an old woman, whose ugliness draws attention by comparison to the beauty of Danaë. The greenish cast of her skin is set against the pale hues of the younger woman. In the Madrid version, painted on commission for Philip II of Spain
, a maidservant replaces Cupid. Danaë parts her lips in pleasure, while the gold spills in greater quantity and with more velocity than in the Naples work. That painting is rendered in a looser manner; for example the folds of the bed linen and pillow are described with shorter more expressive brushstrokes.
While the series freely describes desirable flesh in an overtly sexual manner, Titian transforms the motifs of courtesans and carnal desire into the more highbrow realm of classical myth. A literary equivalent can be found in Pietro Aretino
's Dialogues, where the writer exclaimes "My God, her neck! And her breasts...those two tits would have corrupted virgins and made martyrs unfrock themselves."
and Giorgio Vasari
visited Titian at his temporary studio in the Vatican Belvedere
, they were shown the work now in Madrid, which was in the process of completion. While in the studio, Michelangelo highly praised Titian's use of colour, but later expressed reservations on his grasp of the "sound principles" of draughtsmanship and composition. James Northcote
quotes Vasari's account of Michelangelo's words:
Vasari's account needs to be treated within context; in his view draftsmanship — disegno
— was the highest achievement in art, while colour was secondary. This belief may have led to his fabrication of the anecdote in order to give more weight to his views.
Titian
Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio (c. 1488/1490 – 27 August 1576 better known as Titian was an Italian painter, the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near...
, completed between 1553 and 1556. The works are based on the mythological
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
princess Danaë
Danaë
In Greek mythology, Danaë was a daughter of King Acrisius of Argos and Eurydice of Argos. She was the mother of Perseus by Zeus. She was sometimes credited with founding the city of Ardea in Latium....
. According to Ovid
Ovid
Publius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...
she was isolated in a bronze dungeon following a prophecy that her firstborn would eventually kill her father. Although aware of the consequences, Danaë was seduced and became pregnant by Zeus
Zeus
In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...
(in Roman mythology Jupiter
Jupiter (mythology)
In ancient Roman religion and myth, Jupiter or Jove is the king of the gods, and the god of the sky and thunder. He is the equivalent of Zeus in the Greek pantheon....
), who, inflamed by lust, descended from Mount Olympus
Mount Olympus
Mount Olympus is the highest mountain in Greece, located on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia, about 100 kilometres away from Thessaloniki, Greece's second largest city. Mount Olympus has 52 peaks. The highest peak Mytikas, meaning "nose", rises to 2,917 metres...
to entice her as a shower of gold.
The first version, now in Naples, was painted between 1544-46. Titian executed two later versions on commission from the art-loving Spanish monarch Philip II
Philip II of Spain
Philip II was King of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, while married to Mary I, King of England and Ireland. He was lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories such as duke or count....
. Titian and his workshop produced at least five versions of the painting, which vary to degrees. The dog resting at Danaë's side is absent in some versions, while her companion is a god in some and a hag
Hag
A hag is a wizened old woman, or a kind of fairy or goddess having the appearance of such a woman, often found in folklore and children's tales such as Hansel and Gretel. Hags are often seen as malevolent, but may also be one of the chosen forms of shapeshifting deities, such as the Morrígan or...
gish nursemaid in others. In all, Danaë is a depicted as a voluptuous figure. Her legs are open in all, with her left leg arched; this being a central painterly motif in each.
The works have been highly influential and affected the work of many artists including Rembrandt, Anthony van Dyck
Anthony van Dyck
Sir Anthony van Dyck was a Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England. He is most famous for his portraits of Charles I of England and his family and court, painted with a relaxed elegance that was to be the dominant influence on English portrait-painting for the next...
and Gustav Klimt
Gustav Klimt
Gustav Klimt was an Austrian Symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. His major works include paintings, murals, sketches, and other art objects...
, who all painted versions of the scene. According to the 16th C Italian historian Giorgio Vasari
Giorgio Vasari
Giorgio Vasari was an Italian painter, writer, historian, and architect, who is famous today for his biographies of Italian artists, considered the ideological foundation of art-historical writing.-Biography:...
, Michelangelo
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art...
saw the original and praised Titian's use of colour in the Madrid painting, though later, in private, was critical of Titian's draftsmanship.
Legend of Danaë
The Madrid version was commissioned by Philip II as part of a series of mythological paintings described by Titian as "poesie" ("poems"). According to Greek mythology known by Titian through Ovid's telling, when AcrisiusAcrisius
Acrisius was a mythical king of Argos, and a son of Abas and Aglaea , grandson of Lynceus, great-grandson of Danaus. His twin brother was Proetus, with whom he is said to have quarreled even in the womb of his mother...
consulted the oracle
Oracle
In Classical Antiquity, an oracle was a person or agency considered to be a source of wise counsel or prophetic predictions or precognition of the future, inspired by the gods. As such it is a form of divination....
on how he would get male children, he was told that his daughter would bear a son who would kill him. Acrisius then locked up and guarded his daughter Danaë in a subterranean dungeon. Danaë, aware of the consequences, allowed herself to be seduced and impregnated by Zeus, who persuaded her to lower her defences by appearing in the form of a shower of gold.
When Acrisius learned of Danaë's son Perseus
Perseus
Perseus ,Perseos and Perseas are not used in English. the legendary founder of Mycenae and of the Perseid dynasty of Danaans there, was the first of the mythic heroes of Greek mythology whose exploits in defeating various archaic monsters provided the founding myths of the Twelve Olympians...
, he refused to believe Zeus's role, and cast mother and child adrift at sea in a chest. They landed at Seriphus, where Perseus was raised by Dictys
Dictys
Dictys was a name attributed to four men in Greek mythology.* Dictys was a fisherman and brother of King Polydectes of Seriphos, both being the sons of Magnes by a naiad. He discovered Danaë and Perseus inside a chest that had washed up on shore. He immediately fell in love with Danae and wanted to...
. Perseus eventually fulfilled the prophecy by killing Acrisius years after—although accidentally. There are a number of versions of Acrisius' death. In Pseudo-Apollodorus
Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)
The Bibliotheca , in three books, provides a comprehensive summary of traditional Greek mythology and heroic legends, "the most valuable mythographical work that has come down from ancient times," Aubrey Diller observed, whose "stultifying purpose" was neatly expressed in the epigram noted by...
' version, when Perseus learns of the oracle he goes into voluntary exile in Pelasgiotis
Pelasgians
The name Pelasgians was used by some ancient Greek writers to refer to populations that were either the ancestors of the Greeks or who preceded the Greeks in Greece, "a hold-all term for any ancient, primitive and presumably indigenous people in the Greek world." In general, "Pelasgian" has come...
(Thessaly
Thessaly
Thessaly is a traditional geographical region and an administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thessaly was known as Aeolia, and appears thus in Homer's Odyssey....
), where Teutamides, king of Larissa
Larissa
Larissa is the capital and biggest city of the Thessaly region of Greece and capital of the Larissa regional unit. It is a principal agricultural centre and a national transportation hub, linked by road and rail with the port of Volos, the city of Thessaloniki and Athens...
, is holding funeral games for his father. Perseus competes in the discus throw
Discus throw
The discus throw is an event in track and field athletics competition, in which an athlete throws a heavy disc—called a discus—in an attempt to mark a farther distance than his or her competitors. It is an ancient sport, as evidenced by the 5th century BC Myron statue, Discobolus...
, but his missile veers and strikes Acrisius, killing him instantly.
Danaë was seen in the Middle Ages and Renaissance as a symbol of the corrupting effect of wealth, which could taint even feminine beauty or moral virtue
Virtue
Virtue is moral excellence. A virtue is a positive trait or quality subjectively deemed to be morally excellent and thus is valued as a foundation of principle and good moral being....
. An epigrammist in the Greek Anthology
Greek Anthology
The Greek Anthology is a collection of poems, mostly epigrams, that span the classical and Byzantine periods of Greek literature...
wrote of the legend of Danaë and Zeus:
Overview
In keeping with the Renaissance view of Danaë, Titian has depicted her with the fleshy body of a courtesanCourtesan
A courtesan was originally a female courtier, which means a person who attends the court of a monarch or other powerful person.In feudal society, the court was the centre of government as well as the residence of the monarch, and social and political life were often completely mixed together...
, although she is given the facial features of a graceful contemporary Venetian lady. The 1544–1546 version suggests her fall from grace in a number of ways, including the presence of thunderous clouds, her now-complete nakedness, and the dog (sometimes used as a symbol of libertinism) curling to her left. The old woman's body is now turned fully towards the rain of gold, whereas Eros had his back to the skyscape, with his head turned back.
In each work, Danaë is shown naked or nearly naked, lying on a couch with her knees raised. Either a nursemaid or Eros
Eros
Eros , in Greek mythology, was the Greek god of love. His Roman counterpart was Cupid . Some myths make him a primordial god, while in other myths, he is the son of Aphrodite....
is to her right, holding out a cloth to catch the gold coins spilling down from an explosion of colour in the sky which represents Zeus. The left side of each canvas is an interior. In the Madrid painting, this area is rendered in warm sensual colours of brown and pink framed by purple velvet drapes; the right side of the canvas contains cooler grey and blue tones.
Philip II of Spain
Philip II was King of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, while married to Mary I, King of England and Ireland. He was lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories such as duke or count....
, a maidservant replaces Cupid. Danaë parts her lips in pleasure, while the gold spills in greater quantity and with more velocity than in the Naples work. That painting is rendered in a looser manner; for example the folds of the bed linen and pillow are described with shorter more expressive brushstrokes.
While the series freely describes desirable flesh in an overtly sexual manner, Titian transforms the motifs of courtesans and carnal desire into the more highbrow realm of classical myth. A literary equivalent can be found in Pietro Aretino
Pietro Aretino
Pietro Aretino was an Italian author, playwright, poet and satirist who wielded immense influence on contemporary art and politics and invented modern literate pornography.- Life :...
's Dialogues, where the writer exclaimes "My God, her neck! And her breasts...those two tits would have corrupted virgins and made martyrs unfrock themselves."
Influence
When MichelangeloMichelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art...
and Giorgio Vasari
Giorgio Vasari
Giorgio Vasari was an Italian painter, writer, historian, and architect, who is famous today for his biographies of Italian artists, considered the ideological foundation of art-historical writing.-Biography:...
visited Titian at his temporary studio in the Vatican Belvedere
Cortile del Belvedere
The Cortile del Belvedere, the Belvedere courtyard, designed by Donato Bramante from 1506 onwards, was a major architectural work of the High Renaissance at the Vatican Palace in Rome; its concept and details reverberating in courtyard design, formalized piazzas and garden plans throughout Western...
, they were shown the work now in Madrid, which was in the process of completion. While in the studio, Michelangelo highly praised Titian's use of colour, but later expressed reservations on his grasp of the "sound principles" of draughtsmanship and composition. James Northcote
James Northcote
James Northcote RA , was an English painter.-Biography:He was born at Plymouth, and was apprenticed to his father, a poor watchmaker. In his spare time, he drew and painted. In 1769 he left his father and set up as a portrait painter. Four years later he went to London and was admitted as a pupil...
quotes Vasari's account of Michelangelo's words:
Vasari's account needs to be treated within context; in his view draftsmanship — disegno
Drawing
Drawing is a form of visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, markers, styluses, and various metals .An artist who...
— was the highest achievement in art, while colour was secondary. This belief may have led to his fabrication of the anecdote in order to give more weight to his views.
Mythological commissions
The Madrid version of Danaë forms part of a commission from Philip II for seven mythological paintings by Titian. Only two of the seven remain in Madrid, where they are displayed in the same room.- Diana and Actaeon Diana and Actaeon (Titian)Diana and Actaeon is a painting by the Italian Renaissance master Titian, finished in 1556–1559, and is considered amongst Titian's greatest works. It portrays the moment in which the goddess Diana meets Actaeon. In 2008–2009, the National Gallery, London and National Gallery of Scotland...
(owned jointly by London's National GalleryNational galleryThe National Gallery is an art gallery on Trafalgar Square, London, United Kingdom.National Gallery may also refer to:*Armenia: National Gallery of Armenia, Yerevan*Australia:**National Gallery of Australia, Canberra...
and the National Gallery of ScotlandNational Gallery of ScotlandThe National Gallery of Scotland, in Edinburgh, is the national art gallery of Scotland. An elaborate neoclassical edifice, it stands on The Mound, between the two sections of Edinburgh's Princes Street Gardens...
in Edinburgh) - Diana and CallistoDiana and CallistoDiana and Callisto is a painting of 1556–59 by the Venetian artist Titian. It is currently part of the Bridgewater or Sutherland Loan, on display at the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh, with a later version by Titian and his workshop in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna...
(National Gallery of Scotland) - Perseus and Andromeda (Wallace CollectionWallace CollectionThe Wallace Collection is a museum in London, with a world-famous range of fine and decorative arts from the 15th to the 19th centuries with large holdings of French 18th-century paintings, furniture, arms & armour, porcelain and Old Master paintings arranged into 25 galleries.It was established in...
) - The Rape of Europa (Isabella Stewart Gardner MuseumIsabella Stewart Gardner MuseumThe Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum or Fenway Court, as the museum was known during Isabella Stewart Gardner's lifetime, is a museum in the Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, located within walking distance of the Museum of Fine Arts and near the Back Bay Fens...
) - Venus and AdonisVenus and Adonis (Titian, Madrid)Venus and Adonis is a painting by the Italian late Renaissance artist Titian, executed in Venice around 1553. While the painting, which is now in Madrid's Museo del Prado, is one of a number of versions of the same subject by Titian, it stands out as a particularly important commission, being...
(Museo del Prado)
Sources
- Hope, Charles & Fletcher, Jennifer & Dunkerton, Jill. Titian. National Gallery London, 2003. ISBN 1-8570-9904-4
- Hudson, Mark. Titian: The Last Days. London: Bloomsbury, 2009. ISBN 1-4088-0132-1
- Kaminski, Marion. Titian. Ullmann, 2007. ISBN 978-3-8331-3776-1
- Northcote, James. The life of Titian: with anecdotes of the distinguished persons of his time. Volume II. London : H. Colburn and R. Bentley, 1830.
- Sluijter, Jan Eric. Rembrandt and the female nude. Amsterdam University Press, 2006. ISBN 9-0535-6837-9
- Westermann, Mariët. Rembrandt. London: Phaidon, 1999. ISBN 0-7148-3857-1