The Signs of the Zodiac is a series of twelve allegorical paintings of the signs of the Zodiac, originally painted around 1640 by Jacob Jordaens and bought by the French Senate in 1802 for the ceiling of the East Gallery of the Palais du Luxembourg in Paris. [1] The paintings represent the signs of the zodiac through stories from Greek and Roman mythology. [2]
Jordaens originally created the series for his luxurious Antwerp mansion, where it adorned two rooms located at the back. The journey of the twelve paintings after the painter's death is not entirely clear. They seem to have been in Germany, until they reappeared with the Paris painting dealer Langlier. Here they were seen in 1802 by Baraguey, the assistant of the architect Chalgrin, who was in charge of the installation of the Senate in the Palais du Luxembourg. He immediately grasped the exceptional interest of these canvases "with a ceiling perspective" and recommended to buy them for the Palais de Luxembourg. The French Senate ordered the acquisition of the series, which was then acquired for the price of 4,500 gold francs. [3]
The twelve canvases were mounted on the vault of the East Gallery, which at the time housed the museum of painting open to the public. It was necessary to settle some critical issues, in particular that of the direction of the reading of the Zodiac. During the French Revolution a new calendar had been introduced in France. The question thus arose as to whether the paintings should be installed according to the traditional astronomical order by starting with Aries or in accordance with the new calendar by making the solar year begin at the end of September with Libra. Another question was whether the Zodiac series should start from north to south (i.e. in the direction of the visit to the museum, the public entrance of which was on rue de Vaugirard), or, on the contrary, from south to north, i.e. beginning with the rooms assigned to the senators. The first option prevailed, so that the final panel of the series was the sign of the Virgin, just above the door to the eastern landing. Today the Palais du Luxembourg houses the Musée du Luxembourg and the East Gallery is the museum’s library annex. The East Gallery is accessed from the corridor on the east landing so that it appears that, in contrast to all known calendars, the Zodiac starts on August 22 (the sign of the Virgin). [3]
The 12 works were marouflaged on the ceiling of the East Gallery and in the center was added a painting of Aurora by Antoine-François Callet. [4]
The paintings represent the signs of the zodiac through stories from Greek and Roman mythology. [2]
A woman, crowned with fruit, holds in one hand a cornucopia filled with grapes, symbolizing the month of the grape harvest. In the other hand she holds a balance, a reference to the return of the equality of days and nights at the time of the autumnal equinox on 22 September. [2]
This panel shows a bacchanal or feast of Bacchus. A young satyr is carrying on his shoulders the drunk Silenus who is holding up a bunch of grapes in one hand. The pair are crowned with vine branches. A bacchante follows them while playing a tambourine. The bacchanal symbolizes that in this month the wine growers rejoice and relax from their work by tasting the fruits of their harvest. The scorpion in the border alludes to the malignity of the diseases caused by the humid winds, charged with dangerous vapors, which are felt in this month. [2]
The centaur Nessus kidnaps Deianira, the wife of Hercules, and crosses the river Evinos. The centaur, armed with arrows, symbolizes that November, when the earth is covered with frost, is a good period for hunting. [2]
The nymph Adrasteia milks the goat Amalthea, to give the milk to the child Zeus. Zeus is near her holding a cup. The goat is a symbol for the sun which seems to be always rising in December, just like a wild goat always likes to climb up the steep rocks. [2]
A young man, in the middle of the clouds, pours torrents of water on the earth. He symbolizes the rainy season. [2]
Venus and her son Cupid armed with his bow, carried by fish, are moving across the waters that the winds are agitating with violence. Venus and her son are trying to hold the light draperies that cover them. The agitation of the sea and the fish symbolize that February is the month of strong winds and good fishing. [2]
Mars, armed from head to toe, holding his sword in one hand, shaking the torch of war in the other, descends from the top of the rocks. A shepherd is next to him playing the zither. A ram is standing behind him. Mars, the god of war, symbolizes that March is the time when armies start out on campaigns. The shepherd and the ram symbolize the return of spring when the flocks come out from their sheepfolds. [2]
Jupiter in the form of a bull, his head crowned with flowers, kidnaps the nymph Europa. The bull symbolizes the strength acquired in April by the sun, the warmth of which makes trees and plants bloom. [2]
Two children are pulling a chariot on which Venus is standing with her veil floating on the winds. Next to her is her son Cupid who leans on her while holding an arrow in one hand. One of the children pulling the chariot is spreading flowers on the earth. The goddess of love Venus and the god of desire Cupid symbolize that May is the mating season when the entire natural world is submitted to them. The two children represent the twins Castor and Pollux who, according to the ancient mythology, were changed into the constellation Gemini. When the sun enters this sign, the heat is doubled, the days become longer and the grass of the meadows starts to grow fast. [2]
Apollo, the sun god, gives the reins of his chariot to his son young Phaethon. Phaethon's ride is disastrous, as he cannot keep a firm grip on the horses. As a result, he drives the chariot too close to the earth, burning it, and too far from it, freezing it. In the end, after many complaints, from the stars in the sky to the earth itself, Zeus strikes Phaethon with one of his lightning bolts, killing him instantly. His dead body then drops into the river Eridanus. Jordaens shows Phaethon at the moment of his fall. Having reached the highest point of its course, the sun enters the sign of Cancer, and appears to go backwards like Phaeton. [2]
The divine hero Hercules carries on his back the remains of the Nemean lion which he has defeated. His left hand is resting on his club while he holds in his left hand the golden apples from the Garden of the Hesperides which he had conquered. A young man holding a sheaf of wheat is seated next to him. The lion and the power of Hercules symbolize heat. In Antiquity, the lion, as an animal living in a hot climate, was dedicated to Vulcan, the god of fire. The young man holding a sheaf of wheat symbolizes that the harvest is over. [2]
Ceres is sitting in her chariot pulled by snakes, her head crowned with ears of corn while she holds a sickle in one hand and a sheaf of wheat in the other,. The young Triptolemus, inventor of the plough, is at her side. He is holding the torch which Ceres used when she went out at night to look for Prosperina, her daughter, who had been kidnapped by Pluto. Ceres, goddess of the harvest, benefactress of the earth, returns to Mount Olympus after she has distributed all her gifts and completed the cycle of the year. [2]
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Demeter is the Olympian goddess of the harvest and agriculture, presiding over crops, grains, food, and the fertility of the earth. Although she is mostly known as a grain goddess, she also appeared as a goddess of health, birth, and marriage, and had connections to the Underworld. She is also called Deo. In Greek tradition, Demeter is the second child of the Titans Rhea and Cronus, and sister to Hestia, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus. Like her other siblings but Zeus, she was swallowed by her father as an infant and rescued by Zeus.
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Helios is the god who personifies the Sun. His name is also Latinized as Helius, and he is often given the epithets Hyperion and Phaethon. Helios is often depicted in art with a radiant crown and driving a horse-drawn chariot through the sky. He was a guardian of oaths and also the god of sight. Though Helios was a relatively minor deity in Classical Greece, his worship grew more prominent in late antiquity thanks to his identification with several major solar divinities of the Roman period, particularly Apollo and Sol. The Roman Emperor Julian made Helios the central divinity of his short-lived revival of traditional Roman religious practices in the 4th century AD.
Jacob (Jacques) Jordaens was a Flemish painter, draughtsman and a designer of tapestries and prints. He was a prolific artist who created biblical, mythological, and allegorical compositions, genre scenes, landscapes, illustrations of Flemish sayings and portraits. After the death of Rubens and Anthony van Dyck, he became the leading Flemish Baroque painter of his time. Unlike those illustrious contemporaries he never travelled abroad to study the Antique and Italian painting and, except for a few short trips to locations elsewhere in the Low Countries, he resided in Antwerp his entire life. He also remained largely indifferent to Rubens and van Dyck's intellectual and courtly aspirations. This attitude was expressed in his art through a lack of idealistic treatment which contrasted with that of these contemporaries.
Phaethon, also spelled Phaëthon, is the son of the Oceanid Clymene and the sun god Helios in Greek mythology.
Cupid and Psyche is a story originally from Metamorphoses, written in the 2nd century AD by Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis. The tale concerns the overcoming of obstacles to the love between Psyche and Cupid or Amor, and their ultimate union in a sacred marriage. Although the only extended narrative from antiquity is that of Apuleius from 2nd century AD, Eros and Psyche appear in Greek art as early as the 4th century BC. The story's Neoplatonic elements and allusions to mystery religions accommodate multiple interpretations, and it has been analyzed as an allegory and in light of folktale, Märchen or fairy tale, and myth.
Simon Vouet was a French painter who studied and rose to prominence in Italy before being summoned by Louis XIII to serve as Premier peintre du Roi in France. He and his studio of artists created religious and mythological paintings, portraits, frescoes, tapestries, and massive decorative schemes for the king and for wealthy patrons, including Richelieu. During this time, "Vouet was indisputably the leading artist in Paris," and was immensely influential in introducing the Italian Baroque style of painting to France. He was also according to Pierre Rosenberg, "without doubt one of the outstanding seventeenth-century draughtsmen, equal to Annibale Carracci and Lanfranco."
Cancer (♋︎) is the fourth astrological sign in the zodiac, originating from the constellation of Cancer. It spans from 90° to 120° celestial longitude. Under the tropical zodiac, the Sun transits this area between approximately June 22 and July 22.
Virgo (♍︎) is the sixth astrological sign in the zodiac. It spans the 150–180th degree of the zodiac. Under the tropical zodiac, the Sun transits this area between August 23 and September 22. Depending on the system of astrology, individuals born during these dates may be called Virgos or Virgoans.
Phaeton was the hypothetical planet hypothesized by the Titius–Bode law to have existed between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, the destruction of which supposedly led to the formation of the asteroid belt. The hypothetical planet was named for Phaethon, the son of the sun god Helios in Greek mythology, who attempted to drive his father's solar chariot for a day with disastrous results and was ultimately destroyed by Zeus.
A planet symbol or planetary symbol is a graphical symbol used in astrology and astronomy to represent a classical planet or one of the modern planets. The symbols were also used in alchemy to represent the metals associated with the planets, and in calendars for their associated days. The use of these symbols derives from classical Greco-Roman astronomy, although their current altered shapes were developed in the 16th century.
Creation of the World is a mosaic composition in the dome of the Chigi Chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome, designed by Raphael. The chapel itself was designed by Raphael for his friend and patron, banker Agostino Chigi as a private chapel and family burial place. The dome was decorated with mosaics, a somewhat unusual and old-fashioned technique in the 16th century. Raphael's cartoons were executed by a Venetian craftsman, Luigi da Pace in 1516. The original cartoons were lost but some preparatory drawings, that confirm the originality of the work, survived in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. There are two studies for the figure of God and one for the angel above Jupiter. Another drawing in the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille shows the planet Mars with an angel. This is probably a creative drawing by a pupil suggested by its inferior quality. Luigi da Pace signed and dated the work at the corner of the panel of Venus:
"LV[dovicus] D[e] P[ace] V[enetus] F[ecit] 1516"
The Venetian painter Titian and his workshop made at least six versions of the same composition showing Danaë, painted between about 1544 and the 1560s. The scene is based on the mythological princess Danaë, as – very briefly – recounted by the Roman poet Ovid, and at greater length by Boccaccio. She was isolated in a bronze tower following a prophecy that her firstborn would eventually kill her father. Although aware of the consequences, Danaë was seduced and became pregnant by Zeus, who, inflamed by lust, descended from Mount Olympus to seduce her in the form of a shower of gold.
A composition of Venus and Adonis by the Venetian Renaissance artist Titian has been painted a number of times, by Titian himself, by his studio assistants and by others. In all there are some thirty versions that may date from the 16th century, the nudity of Venus undoubtedly accounting for this popularity. It is unclear which of the surviving versions, if any, is the original or prime version, and a matter of debate how much involvement Titian himself had with surviving versions. There is a precise date for only one version, that in the Prado in Madrid, which is documented in correspondence between Titian and Philip II of Spain in 1554. However, this appears to be a later repetition of a composition first painted a considerable time earlier, possibly as early as the 1520s.
In astrology, planets have a meaning different from the astronomical understanding of what a planet is. Before the age of telescopes, the night sky was thought to consist of two similar components: fixed stars, which remained motionless in relation to each other, and moving objects/"wandering stars", which moved relative to the fixed stars over the course of the year(s).
Venus, Adonis and Cupid is a painting created c. 1595 by Annibale Carracci. The painting is in the Museo del Prado, Madrid. Annibale Carracci was one of the most well known Italian Baroque painters of the seventeenth century. The Carracci brothers established an academy of art called Accademia degli Incamminati, which pioneered the development of Bolognese Painting. Annibale Carracci and Caravaggio were among the most influential artists of this century, who through their unique artistic styles led to the transition from Mannerist to Baroque. Annibale was born in Bologna in 1560 and died in Rome in 1609.
Cupid complaining to Venus is an oil painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder. Nearly 20 similar works by Cranach and his workshop are known, from the earliest dated version in Güstrow Palace of 1527 to one in the Burrell Collection, Glasgow, dated to 1545, with the figures in a variety of poses and differing in other details. The Metropolitan Museum of Art notes that the number of extant versions suggests that this was one of Cranach's most successful compositions.
Portrait of the Artist with his Family, also known as Self-Portrait with Parents, Brothers and Sisters is a c. 1615 painting by the Flemish artist Jacob Jordaens of himself with his parents and siblings. With Group Portrait, The Apostles Paul and Barnabas at Lystra (c.1618) and The Banquet of Cleopatra, it is one of four works by the artist in the Hermitage Museum.
Triumph of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange is a painting by the Flemish painter Jacob Jordaens, signed and dated at the bottom left "J JOR fec / 1652". It is located in the Oranjezaal in the Huis ten Bosch in The Hague, The Netherlands.
In Greek mythology, Clymene or Klymene was the name of an Oceanid nymph loved by the sun god Helios and the mother by him of Phaethon and the Heliades. In most versions, Clymene is the one to reveal to Phaethon his divine parentage and encourage him to seek out his father, and even drive his solar chariot.
Phaethon is the title of a lost tragedy written by Athenian playwright Euripides, first produced circa 420 BC, and covered the myth of Phaethon, the young mortal boy who asked his father the sun god Helios to drive his solar chariot for a single day. The play has been lost, though several fragments of it survive. Another treatment of the myth had been delivered earlier by Aeschylus in his lost play Heliades, whose content and plot are even more fragmentary and obscure. The influence of Euripides' play on Ovid's version of the myth can be easily recognized. From this now lost play only twelve fragments remain, covering around 400 lines or so.
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