The Exaltation of Beauty

Danaë and the Shower of Gold, 1621–1623, by Orazio Gentileschi, 161.5 × 227.1 cm, Getty Museum The subject is based on a passage in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, in which King Acrisius of Argos imprisoned his beautiful daughter in order to avoid the Oracle’s prophesy that she would give birth to a son who would kill him. In the story, Jupiter takes the form of a shower of gold and impregnates Danaë, who then gives birth to Perseus. Here, Cupid pulls back the luxuriant dark green curtain to allow the god to enter the bedchamber, and the viewer too is invited to witness the moment of seduction. A transparent veil is draped across Danaë, though rather than covering her modesty, the fabric creates a tantalizing and sensual focal point on her body. The picture is a meticulous study of light, surface effects and color; the artist skillfully renders the sheen of the fabrics, ranging from the gold bedcover to the cool white linen sheet and deep crimson mattress.

The artwork was originally part of a group of paintings commissioned by the Genoese nobleman Giovanni Antonio Sauli, which includes a Penitent Magdalene (ca. 1622–23), today in a private collection, and Lot and His Daughters (ca. 1622), owned by the J. Paul Getty Museum since 1998. The subjects of the Sauli paintings come from disparate sources: Danaë is a figure from classical mythology, the story of Lot and his daughters is from the Hebrew Bible, and the Penitent Magdalene is from an apocryphal Christian tale. The uniting thread between the three paintings is the relationship between women and divinity. Each artwork represents a different type of love: Danaë represents sensual love; the Magdalene symbolizes devotional love in the wake of her conversion; and Lot’s daughters personify the moral challenges of love, for they must choose between the sin of incest and a divine order to procreate after the men of Sodom are killed in the city’s destruction.

Those of you who have followed the channel for a long time might remember that in 2021 this channel was a average aesthetics dump. Beginning with 2022 I started to realize it's quite easy to find information about artworks and the artist in general and I became fascinated. I decided to add more text to some posts whenever I found it beautiful and relevant. Beginning with 2023 I reduced the number of posts per day, mainly try to post one artwork every day or highlighting one artist. Emphasis was put on education and learning. It's probably too late to ask this and it might not bring any kind of new development on the channel, but I'm curious what the community thinks. Are you happy with the content here? I hope you learned a lot about the history of art, about the art of painting in general, about the traditions of the old masters and various cultural currents. The text is usually between 2 and 6 paragraphs in size and I don't find it overwhelming. I don't think any other channel does this on telegram. I think it's a positive change to turn art channels from some kind of addictive self gratifying staring at meaningless pretty images, to a place more educational.

Next, there are more rendered details on the father than on the young son. The father’s clothing has an array of textures: He has donned gold and jewelry and has textured fur and a velvety robe. The son is depicted with a bare back and a simple peasant garment to cover himself. The details and textures make the father a more important compositional figure than the son. Finally, Batoni used color intensity to maintain the father as the primary focal point. The father’s garb is much more colorful than the son’s. Batoni incorporated the complementary colors of red and green into the father’s clothes. Complementary colors are believed to be colors that naturally contrast one another and thereby hold our gaze longer than an area of lower contrast like the simple browns of the son’s clothes. All of it is meant to highlight the importance and role of the father, who is the love and forgiveness of God. The picture was bought from the artist himself for the Imperial Picture Gallery immediately after it was created.

The Return of the Prodigal Son, 1773, by Pompeo Batoni, Kunsthistorisches Museum The biblical parable of the prodigal son tells of God's mercy on repentant sinners. Batoni depicted only the father and young son in his composition, showing the return of the poor and naked son into the arms of the father, who lovingly takes him in and wraps his cloak around to protect him. It's perhaps the moment when the son falls to his knees and says, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son." Though there are just two figures, Batoni maintained the father as the primary focal point through several compositional methods. First, the father has a higher placement in the composition. A hierarchy of importance is suggested between the father and his young son since the son kneels and makes himself lower in the presence of his father.

Cleopatra (1883) by Julius Kronberg

This incredible Academic masterpiece was commissioned in 1879 by Count Fredrick Wachtmeister and resided in Tistad Castle for over 130 years. Wrought with depth, emotion and awe-inspiring details, this incredible oil on canvas is one of the handful of stand-alone paintings Kronberg ever composed. This breathtaking original oil on canvas measures over 13 feet tall, allowing the viewer to immerse themselves in the very moment Cleopatra famously took her own life by allowing a highly poisonous asp to bite her. It is believed Kronberg’s inspiration was Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra which was published in Sweden for the first time in 1825. Taking cues from Orientalist works, the artist presents an amazingly intricate and vibrant interior that exudes exoticism and spectacle, with the Queen and her two attendants set amidst the lavishness of a royal chamber. This is marvelously juxtaposed by their twisted, strained poses which exude the tragedy and anguish unfolding in this tour de force of Academic art.

King David inscribing one of his famous Psalms, by Guercino, 1651