In the 16th and 17th centuries, artists made many paintings with mythological subjects. At first this raises questions:what did the church think of these pagan conditions? And were the paintings only for the classically trained elite? Or did Jan with the cap also understand which story was depicted? It turns out that we are less exposed to classical mythology today than the people of the 17th century. The well-known myths, which are now mainly taught at the gymnasium, were then known to almost everyone.
Descendant of Hector
Despite the Christianization of the pagan population in Europe during the early Middle Ages, the stories of heroes and gods did not completely disappear. Learned Church Fathers such as Augustine thought it better to adapt the useful elements of these stories to the new faith. This was true not only for Germanic stories but also for Roman ones. In this way the illiterate population could become acquainted with the new Christian mores and customs through their own stories.
The most well-known myths of Classical Antiquity stemmed from Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, and from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Homer's texts, which had been preserved in edited versions, were especially loved by European nobles. It contained the Trojan heroes who, after the fire of their homeland, had fanned out over Europe to found royal houses there. European nobles liked to claim to be descendants of these Trojans to increase their status. Especially Trojan Hektor was very popular, while in older texts his Greek opponent Achilles was the noble hero.
Ovid's Metamorphoses came back into the picture during the Renaissance, a period in which they again went back to Classical Antiquity. The female nude had been a taboo in art for 1000 years and the guidelines the classical painters and sculptors worked on had been forgotten. The devout artist Sandro Botticelli changed this around 1486 with his painting The Birth of Venus. The Catholic Church was the main commissioner at the time, but this painting was ordered by, probably, the powerful Tuscan de' Medici family. Totally outside the ecclesiastical tradition, Botticelli painted the beautiful and graceful Venus in all its glory on the canvas.
He clearly made use of anatomical studies for the body of his goddess. He had also incorporated the ideal dimensions, as described in the guidelines of classical artists. The subject of the painting was not yet known to many people and the client must therefore have been a lover of the new movement. From Italy, where paintings with naked goddesses became very popular, especially among the nobles, this fashion spread to the rest of Europe. In the Netherlands it was the painter Jan Gossaert who started using mythological stories as a subject for his work in the early 16th century. The painters depicted Classical Antiquity as they thought it must have looked like. In addition to the nudes, important here were the classical architecture with many columns and the costumes of the figures.
Ovid super hip
But the real hype started after the middle of the 16th century. In literature, the Metamorphoses had become very popular among the common people. They appeared not only in Latin for the literate population but also in the vernacular and illustrated for the rest. In this version of the Metamorphoses you saw a print with a title and a short verse below it. This text was not a literal translation of Ovid, but more of a moralistic explanation for the print. The first illustrated Metamorfoses in Dutch appeared in 1557. These prints with the classic stories were extremely popular and were used again with every reprint or new edition. As a result, the images had become so well-known among the people that later painters from the 17th century often copied the compositions of the prints. No further explanation was needed about the depicted. Hence, the compositions of paintings, depicting the same myth from classical antiquity, often resembled each other.
Take the Paris Judgment:the story in which Paris gave the Golden Apple to the most beautiful goddess. (This story was originally from the Iliad but was discussed in the Medieval versions of the Metamorphoses.) This scene is only a small part of a longer story, but it is still known by many people today. We owe this to the painters of the 17th century. For their painting, they often chose the moment when Venus receives or has just received the apple from Paris. Exactly this scene was already depicted in the 16th century prints so that young and old knew what the painter wanted to say with his naked lady and her apple. The moral of the story outward beauty and lust brings man down was also not new because of the textual explanation of these prints. The viewer knew that this was not about the naked woman, but about the lesson behind it. Textual explanations may not be possible for paintings, but because of the knowledge of the captions for the prints it was not necessary either.
Contorted bodies
In the 16th century a movement emerged in painting which we now call Mannerism. In this way of painting, the body was central:the painter depicted the naked bodies in the most difficult positions, so that muscle masses and writhing limbs could be clearly observed by the spectators. The painting of these naked bodies was seen as an example of the painters' virtuosity. This style allowed them to show everyone how good they were at their craft. The genre in which the painter could display his ultimate skills is called history painting. Paintings from this genre, the history paintings, depicted scenes from history. The naked bodies of the gods in the mythological stories from Classical Antiquity, as well as stories from the Bible, therefore lent themselves well to this genre.
History painting was the most important genre in 17th century painting. Not only because of the virtuosoly painted figures, but also because of the indispensable knowledge of history. The Flemish painter Karel van Mander already described the genre in his Schilderboeck in 1604. With his book he wanted to elevate painting from craft to art. And thorough knowledge about the new and old theories of painting and about subjects from Classical Antiquity were necessary. This was all in Van Mander's book as well as names of old masters from Classical Antiquity. And because Ovid's Metamorphoses were so popular, he included the explanation of the mythological stories as an appendix to his book.
Mythological subjects were thus very important in the art of the 17th century. The painter was thus able to demonstrate that he possessed knowledge of Classical Antiquity and he could show how well he could depict the human nude. Now there were two kinds of nudes:the erotic nude and the historical nude.
In the first case, mythology was used as an excuse to paint a naked woman. Often these paintings were hung in private rooms. The owners had them to show their friends or to spice up the atmosphere in the bedroom:it was even thought that the image of a naked woman would increase fertility. A young bridal couple from better circles sometimes received these kinds of paintings as gifts. In some cases, the couple themselves were depicted as classical gods or heroes. The young bride was depicted half-naked as the love goddess Venus or some other mythical beauty. These paintings, which now hang in their full glory in museums all over the world, were not made in the 17th century for any eyes other than those of the closest acquaintances.
The historical nudes were less explicit and often had a Christian morality. The most depicted scene in the Netherlands (but not abroad) comes from the story of Vertumnus, the god of autumn. In the guise of an old woman he visited Pomona, the goddess of gardens and orchards. He wanted to marry her, but since she didn't want anything to do with love or men, he had to come up with a ruse. As an old woman, he tried to convince her of the benefits of marriage.
The juxtaposition of a young and old woman was very popular in painting. This allowed the painter to show how skillfully he could portray all stages of the human skin. This was seen as one of the greatest challenges for a painter. In addition, morality came into play:all earthly beauty is transient. Depictions of this transience can be found in large numbers and in many variants in the 17th century. But by using a young and an old woman in one painting, the reference is very emphatically present.
Ovid's Metamorphoses, which were known to everyone, literate or not, lent themselves well to history painting. Pride falls, sin is punished and virtue rewarded:such themes were often behind the mythological paintings. The victory themes from the Trojan War also performed well. They were especially loved by the city councils who had suffered under the Spanish yoke. As a result, mythological nudes could also be found on the walls in the town halls. Despite protests from the Protestant church, the 'pagan' stories from Classical Antiquity would remain very popular in the 17th century. The erotic nudes were enjoyed by all layers of society, but also the moral behind them.
Mythological figures on Kennislink:- Plaster heroes in the Allard Pierson museum- Myths on Greek pottery