Torture of Prometheus | |
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Artist | Salvator Rosa |
Year | circa 1646 to 1648 |
Medium | oil on canvas |
Dimensions | 224 cm× 179 cm(88 in× 70 in) |
Location | Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome |
Torture of Prometheus is an oil painting by Salvator Rosa, an Italian Baroque painter active in Naples and Rome, executed c. 1646-1648.
The scene depicts a story from Greek mythology, wherein Prometheus, one of the Titans, is punished by Zeus for having provided humanity with fire. The punishment was to chain Prometheus to a rock in the Caucusus, and that an eagle would arrive and feast on his liver. Daily his wounds would heal, his liver regenerate, and the eagle would return to again torture him. At Prometheus' feet is a torch representative of his sin.
The scene has been represented by other contemporary painters such as Rubens and Jordaens, but they typically show the beginning of the eagle's attack, while Rosa has chosen to depict the event in the midst of a gory disembowelment. Rosa was far more successful in obtaining clients for his landscapes, often depicting storms and wildness. The present scene encapsulates some of the passion which Rosa instilled in his paintings. [1]
In Greek mythology, Prometheus is one of the Titans and a god of fire. Prometheus is best known for defying the Olympian gods by taking fire from them and giving it to humanity in the form of technology, knowledge and, more generally, civilization.
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.
Genre art is the pictorial representation in any of various media of scenes or events from everyday life, such as markets, domestic settings, interiors, parties, inn scenes, work, and street scenes. Such representations may be realistic, imagined, or romanticized by the artist. Some variations of the term genre art specify the medium or type of visual work, as in genre painting, genre prints, genre photographs, and so on.
Prometheus Bound is an ancient Greek tragedy traditionally attributed to Aeschylus and thought to have been composed sometime between 479 BC and the terminus ante quem of 424 BC. The tragedy is based on the myth of Prometheus, a Titan who defies Zeus, and protects and gives fire to mankind, for which he is subjected to the wrath of Zeus and punished.
Salvator Rosa (1615–1673) is best known today as an Italian Baroque painter, whose romanticized landscapes and history paintings, often set in dark and untamed nature, exerted considerable influence from the 17th century into the early 19th century. In his lifetime he was among the most famous painters, known for his flamboyant personality, and regarded as an accomplished poet, satirist, actor, musician, and printmaker, as well. He was active in Naples, Rome, and Florence, where on occasion he was compelled to move between cities, as his caustic satire earned him enemies in the artistic and intellectual circles of the day.
Red-figure pottery is a style of ancient Greek pottery in which the background of the pottery is painted black while the figures and details are left in the natural red or orange color of the clay.
Christ at the Column, is a painting by the Italian Baroque painter Caravaggio, now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen, Rouen, France.
Genre painting, a form of genre art, depicts aspects of everyday life by portraying ordinary people engaged in common activities. One common definition of a genre scene is that it shows figures to whom no identity can be attached either individually or collectively, thus distinguishing it from history paintings and portraits. A work would often be considered as a genre work even if it could be shown that the artist had used a known person—a member of his family, say—as a model. In this case it would depend on whether the work was likely to have been intended by the artist to be perceived as a portrait—sometimes a subjective question. The depictions can be realistic, imagined, or romanticized by the artist. Because of their familiar and frequently sentimental subject matter, genre paintings have often proven popular with the bourgeoisie, or middle class.
John Hamilton Mortimer was a British figure and landscape painter and printmaker, known for romantic paintings set in Italy, works depicting conversations, and works drawn in the 1770s portraying war scenes, similar to those of Salvator Rosa.[I]
Prometheus Unbound is a fragmentary play in the Prometheia trilogy attributed to the 5th-century BC Greek tragedian Aeschylus, thought to have followed Prometheus Bound. Prometheus Unbound was probably followed by Prometheus the Fire-Bringer. It is concerned with the torments of the Greek mythological figure Prometheus who defies the gods and proceeds to give fire to humanity, for which he is subjected to eternal punishment and suffering at the hands of Zeus.
Jacob Isaacszoon van Swanenburg was a Dutch painter, draftsman and art dealer. He was known for his city views, history paintings, Christian religious scenes and portraits. He spent a substantial part of his early career in Italy before returning to his native Leiden. He was the teacher of the young Rembrandt.
The Arkesilas Painter was a Laconian vase painter active around 560 BC. He is considered one of the five great vase painters of Sparta.
Various types of visual arts developed in the geographical area now known as Mexico. The development of these arts roughly follows the history of Mexico, divided into the prehispanic Mesoamerican era, the colonial period, with the period after Mexican War of Independence, the development Mexican national identity through art in the nineteenth century, and the florescence of modern Mexican art after the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920).
The Altarpiece of Saint Barbara is a painting by Gonzalo Pérez in the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya in Barcelona.
The Punishment of Tityus is a drawing by the Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo.
Prometheus Bound is an oil painting by Peter Paul Rubens, a Flemish Baroque artist from Antwerp. Influenced by the Greek play, Prometheus: The Friend of Man, Peter Paul Rubens completed this painting in his studio with collaboration from Frans Snyders, who rendered the eagle. It remained in his possession from 1612 to 1618, when it was traded in a group of paintings completed by Rubens, to Englishman Sir Dudley Carleton in exchange for his collection of classical statues. This work is currently in the collection of the Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille.
Auguste Bonheur was a French painter of animals and bucolic scenes in landscapes. In his compositions he was able to accurately depict the horizon, ambience, luminous settings and space. His works show the influence of the paintings of cattle by seventeenth-century Dutch painters such as Aelbert Cuyp and Paulus Potter.
The Rape of Ganymede is a painting by the Flemish Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens produced between 1636 and 1638 painting for the Spanish king Philip IV of Spain's hunting lodge. The painting is based on a story recounted in classical poet Ovid's Metamorphoses. It depicts the moment when the Roman supreme god Jupiter disguised as an eagle catches the young shepherd Ganymede and lifts him into the air. It is in the collection of the Museo del Prado in Madrid. The dramatic scene gave Rubens ample opportunity to show his skill in depicting a lively scene and the nude.
Prometheus Bound is an 1847 oil painting by American artist Thomas Cole. Prometheus Bound is one of Cole's largest paintings, and like his other major works of the 1840s it was not the result of a commission. It draws from the ancient Greek tragedy Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus. In the painting, Prometheus is chained to a rock on Mount Caucasus in Scythia. Zeus has punished him for endowing humans with life, knowledge, and specifically for giving humans fire. Each day a raptor comes to feed on Prometheus's liver, which regrows between visits, making Zeus's punishment even more cruel.
Ixion is a 1632 oil painting, signed and dated by Jusepe de Ribera. It shows a scene from Classical mythology, of Ixion being tortured as the eternal punishment meted out by Zeus. It is one of a series of four paintings by Ribera of the four "Furies" or "Condemned" from Greek mythology. It is held by the Museo del Prado in Madrid, along with Ribera's painting of Tityos; the other two, of Sisyphus and Tantalus, are lost.