Public Domain Photo: Adonis,a bronze sculpture inspired by an antique sculpture from the French royal collections, created by the Swiss sculptor and gunfounder Jean-Balthazar Keller (1638-1702), cast in 1687, dimensions H: 1.62 m (5 ft. 3 ¾ in.), W: 70 cm (27 ½ in.), located at Louvre Museum, Paris.
Public Domain Photo: Dish of serpentine with inlaid gold fish, pearls and other gemstones, 1st century BCE or CE, with 9th century mounts from the Court of Charles the Bald, purchased in 1793 by the Louvre Museum and currently in the inventory of Louvre Museum (Musée du Louvre), Department of Decorative Arts, Richelieu, First Floor, Room No. 1, Paris, France.
PD Image: Hermaphroditus and Salmacis, oil on copper glued to a wood panel painting by Francesco Albani (1591-1666), dimensions 14 cm x 31 cm (5.51 in x 12.20 in), current location at Department of Paintings, Denon, 1st floor, Room 12, Musée du Louvre, Paris, France (Accession number: INV 19) - Provenance: by André Le Nôtre (1613-1700), ceded to Louis XIV of France (1638-1715) by André Le Nôtre, and in 1793 ownership transferred to Muséum Central des Arts (now Musée du Louvre), Paris.
Image: Aurora and Cephalus (L'Aurore et Céphale) by French painter (1774-1833) Pierre-Narcisse Guerin, dimensions 2.545 m x 1.860 m, currently in Louvre Museum, Paris, France.
Aurora is the Latin word for dawn, the goddess of dawn in Roman mythology and Latin poetry, comparable to the Greek goddess Eos. Aurora renews herself every morning and flies across the sky, announcing the arrival of the sun. Aurora appears most often in Latin poetry with one of her mortal lovers. Cephalus, the founding head of a great family that includes Odysseus, was one of the lovers of Aurora/Eos.
The so-called Lely's Venus ‘Aphrodite surprised as she bathes’, marble sculpture, Roman copy by an unknown artist from the 2nd century BC after an Hellenistic original, height 1.12 m (3 feet 8 inches), from the former collection of Sir Peter Lely; lent by H.M. Queen Elizabeth II, location at Main floor, room 23, Greek & Rome, British Museum, London, United Kingdom.
The Crouching Aphrodite (Venus), marble sculpture, Roman variant of the Imperial Era after a Hellenistic type (but the goddess is raising her left hand towards her neck whereas in the prototype used she to crosses her arms on her breast), height 71 cm (27 ¾ inches), seized during the French Revolution from the collections of Louis XIV of France, currently housed at Department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities, Sully, ground floor, room 17, Louvre Museum, Paris, France.
Crouching Aphrodite (Venus) at Louvre Museum, view 2
The Crouching Aphrodite (Venus), marble sculpture, Roman copy by an unknown artist of the 1st or 2nd century CE after a Hellenistic original of the 3rd century BC, derived from the Cnidian Aphrodite by Praxiteles from Sainte-Colombe, Isère, France, height 96 cm (37 ¾ in.), Gerantet Collection (purchase 1878), current location at Department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities, Sully, ground floor, room 17, Louvre Museum, Paris, France.
Lot et ses filles (1651) – alternative names: ‘Lot and his daughters’ and ‘Loth e le figlie’, oil on canvas painting by Italian Baroque painter Guercino (1618-1622, Giovanni Francesco Barbieri), dimensions 172 cm x 222 cm, located in Louvre, Paris.
Image: Capitoline Venus (after the Aphrodite of Cnidus), a marble sculpture belonging to Roman artwork of the Imperial Era (2nd century CE), from Anzio, Italy, located at Department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities, Sully, ground floor, room 17, Louvre Museum, Paris, France.
Praxiteles of Athens was the most renowned of the Attic sculptors of the 4th century BC. It is widely believed that Praxiteles was the first to sculpt the nude female form as a life-size statue. While no unquestionably attributable sculpture by Praxiteles is in existence, numerous copies of his works have survived. The Thespian courtesan Phryne is believed to be his beautiful model, and a speculated relationship between Praxiteles and the model has inspired works of art ranging from painting (Gerome) to shadow puppetry.
‘Young bather playing with his dog’ (Jeune baigneur jouant avec son chien), marble sculpture by French sculptor Antoine Laurent Dantan, also known as Dantan the Elder (1798-1878), made in Rome in 1833 and exhibited at the Salon of 1835, dimensions: height 1.05 m (3 ft. 5 ¼ in.), width 59 cm (23 in.), depth 58 cm (22 ¾ in.), purchased in 1835, located at Department of Sculptures, Richelieu, ground floor, room 32, Louvre Museum, Paris, France.
‘Perseus and Andromeda’ (1679) painting by French painter Pierre Mignard (1612-1695), oil on canvas, 150 cm x 198 cm, located at the Musée du Louvre, Paris, France. The scene shows the King of Ethiopia Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia thank Perseus for having saved their daughter Andromeda, offered in sacrifice to sea monster Cetus.
According to Greek mythology, Andromeda was the daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopeia, the king and queen of Ethiopia. Her mother Cassiopeia bragged around that Andromeda was more beautiful than the Nereids, the daughters of the Sea God Nereus and often seen with Poseidon.
To punish Queen Cassiopeia for her arrogance, Poseidon, brother of Zeus and god of the Sea, sent a sea monster, Cetus, to ravage Ethiopia. The desperate King Cepheus consulted the Oracle of Zeus, who said that there would be no respite until the King sacrificed his virgin daughter Andromeda to the sea monster. So, Andromeda was chained naked to a rock on the coast of Jaffa - most paintings and art objects depict the theme of Andromeda chained to the rocks.
However, Perseus slew the sea monster Cetus, saved Andromeda and married her, who was previously promised to her uncle Phineus. At the marriage there was a quarrel between Perseus and Phineus, who was turned to stone by the sight of the Gorgon's head.
Andromeda followed her husband to Tiryns in Argos, where they became the ancestors of the family of the Perseidae through the line of their son Perses. Perseus and Andromeda had seven sons; Perseides, Perses, Alcaeus, Heleus, Mestor, Sthenelus and Electryon, and a daughter, Gorgophone. Their descendants ruled Mycenae from Electryon down to Eurystheus, after whom Atreus attained the kingdom, and would also include the great hero Heracles. According to this mythology, Perseus is the ancestor of the Persians.
After her death, Andromeda was placed by Athena amongst the constellations in the northern sky, near Perseus and Cassiopeia. Andromeda is represented by the constellation Andromeda which contains the Andromeda Galaxy. Four constellations are associated with the myth: Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Andromeda, and Cetus.
Image: Nymphes dansant (Deux femmes dansant devant un berger jouant du pipeau, dit aussi Nymphes dansant), a 1718 oil-on-panel painting by Dutch painters Adriaen van der Werff and Pieter van der Werff, size 58.5 cm x 44 cm (23.03” x 17.32”), located at Musée du Louvre, Richelieu, 2nd floor, room A, Paris, France.
Pieter van der Werff was the principal pupil and assistant of Adriaen van der Werff. Nymphes dansant was a further development or improvement upon the theme of Adriaen’s painting ‘Een dansende nymf op het fluitspel van een herder’ (1718).
Photo: Diana of Versailles (Artemis with a hind), located at Department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman antiquities, Sully, ground floor, room 17, Louvre Museum, Paris, France.
Diana (La Baigneuse) the 1778 marble sculpture by French artist Christophe-Gabriel Allegrain (1710-1795), 1.70 m (5 feet 6 ¾ in) tall, located at the Department of Sculptures, Richelieu, lower ground floor, Cour Puget, Louvre Museum, Paris, France.
Painting: Le Concert Champêtre (Pastoral Concert), a work which the Louvre now attributes to Titian, and some others credit to Giorgione. Details: oil on canvas, dimensions 110 cm x 138 cm, location at Musée du Louvre, Paris.
The uncertainty in distinguishing between the paintings of Giorgione and Titian is most apparent in the case of the Concert Champêtre (Pastoral Concert) described in 2003 as ‘perhaps the most contentious problem of attribution in the whole of Italian Renaissance art’, but affects a large number of paintings possibly from Giorgione's last years. The Concert Champêtre is one of a group of paintings, which are very close in style and have been more and more frequently given to Titian. But no one has been able to create a coherent sequence of Titian's early works that includes these ones, in a way that commands general support, and fits the known facts of his career.
Aphrodite of Milos, better known as the Venus de Milo, currently on display at the Louvre Museum in Paris, is an ancient Greek statue that is one of the most famous works of ancient Greek sculpture. Created at some time between 130 and 100 BC, it is believed to depict Aphrodite (Venus to the Romans) the Greek goddess of love and beauty. The marble sculpture, slightly larger than life size at 203 cm (6 ft 8 in) high with its arms and original plinth lost, is thought to be the work of Alexandros of Antioch. Earlier, its creation was mistakenly attributed to the sculptor Praxiteles.
Grande Odalisque (Une Odalisque or La Grande Odalisque), an oil painting (91 cm x 162 cm) of 1814 by the French painter Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, depicts an odalisque (concubine). Ingres' contemporaries considered the work to signify his break from Neoclassicism to exotic Romanticism. Grande Odalisque has been noted for the elongated proportions and lack of anatomical realism. The work is housed in the Louvre in Paris.
The painting was commissioned by Napoleon's sister, Queen Caroline Murat of Naples. Ingres drew upon works such as Dresden Venus by Giorgione, and Titian's Venus of Urbino as inspiration for this reclining figure, though the actual pose of a reclining figure looking back over her shoulder is directly drawn from the 1809 Portrait of Madame Récamier by Jacques-Louis David. The small head, elongated limbs, and cool color scheme reveal influences from Mannerists such as Parmigianino, whose Madonna with the Long Neck was also famous for anatomical distortion.
