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Danaë
Danaë
Year	c. 1612
Medium	oil paint, copper
Dimensions	41.3 cm (16.3 in) × 52.7 cm (20.7 in)
Accession No.	93:1986
	[edit on Wikidata]

Danaë is a 1612 painting by the Italian Baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi. It hangs in the Saint Louis Art Museum, United States.^[1]^[2]^[3]

It is assumed that this is a self-portrait of the artist.^[4]

Description

Subject matter

The story of Danaë is recorded in Ovid's Metamorphoses and recounts the plight of the daughter of King Acrisius of Argos. A prophecy led him to believe that his grandchild would lead to his death, and therefore imprisoned his daughter to prevent a potential pregnancy. Zeus overcame this challenge by transforming himself into a shower of gold, entering the room and seducing Danaë. She subsequently bore a son Perseus, who went on to kill his grandfather in his adulthood.

Composition

The nude figure of Danaë reclines on her richly textiled bed in a darkened space, while her servant wearing a white headscarf in the background collects gold coins in her blue skirts. The pose and design are based on Artemisia's earlier version of Cleopatra.^[5] A cleaning completed in 1986 removed old discolored varnish and restored the vibrant colors of the servant's dress.^[6]

Interpretation

Art historians have debated this portrayal of Danaë, with some noting an open, inviting posture, while others observe the clenched fist and closed legs.^[5] Some scholars believe this painting refers directly to the rape the artist endured a few years prior,^[3] while others argue that she rather had a sympathy for women victimized by unwelcome sexual pressures.^[7]

History

Attribution

Unlike most of Artemisia's surviving works, this painting was executed on copper.^[5] Given that Orazio was known to work frequently on copper, this has led scholars to debate the authorship between daughter and father.^[6] The attribution to Artemisia lies in both the naturalistic rendering of the female form as well as the sensitive portrayal of a woman's distress towards sexual violence.^[5]

Provenance

The painting was created while Artemisia was living in Rome, around 1612.^[2] The first documented appearance of the painting was at the Sotheby's sale in Monaco on February 22, 1986, where it was sold as a work of the artist's father Orazio. The painting was subsequently purchased by the Saint Louis Art Museum on August 1, 1986.^[8]

Bibliography

Banta, Anadaleeb Badiee, Alexa Greist, and Theresa Kutasz Christensen, eds. Making her Mark: A History of Women Artists in Europe, 1400-1800. Toronto, Ontario: Goose Lane Editions, 2023. Published in conjunction with an exhibition of the same title, organized and presented by the Baltimore Museum of Art, October 1, 2023-January 7, 2024 and the Art Gallery of Ontario, March 30, 2024-July 1, 2024. ^[9]

References

^ "St Louis Art Museum". Archived from the original on September 8, 2017. Retrieved March 12, 2017.
^ ^a ^b Christiansen, Keith; Mann, Judith Walker (January 1, 2001). Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi. New York; New Haven: Metropolitan Museum of Art ; Yale University Press. ISBN 1588390063.
^ ^a ^b Zarucchi, Jeanne Morgan (January 1, 1998). "The Gentileschi "Danaë": A Narrative of Rape". Woman's Art Journal. 19 (2): 13–16. doi:10.2307/1358400. JSTOR 1358400.
^ Jennifer Higgie, The Mirror and the Palette : Rebellion, Revolution and Resilience : 500 Years of Women's Self-Portraits, Londres, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2022 (1re éd. 2021), 328 p. (ISBN 978-1-4746-1379-8)
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Treves, Letizia (2020). Artemisia. London: The National Gallery Company Ltd.
^ ^a ^b Bissell, R. Ward (1999). Artemisia Gentileschi and the Authority of Art. The Pennsylvania State University Press.
^ Garrard, Mary D. (1989). The image of the female hero in Italian baroque art. Princeton University Press.
^ "Immunity From Seizure: Artemisia" (PDF). The National Gallery, London.
^ Banta, Andaleeb Badiee; Greist, Alexa; Kutasz Christensen, Theresa; Art Gallery of Ontario; Baltimore Museum of Art, eds. (2023). Making her mark: a history of women artists in Europe, 1400-1800. Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada: Goose Lane Editions. ISBN 978-1-77310-318-1.