An artwork on Galleree from Cleveland Museum of Art.
About the artwork
Danaëc. 1623
Orazio Gentileschi
Danaë’s father feared a prophecy that his grandson would kill him, so he imprisoned his daughter to protect her from suitors. Yet Jupiter, king of the gods, fell in love with Danaë, and he came to her in the form of gold streaming from the sky. Gentileschi adopted Caravaggio’s method of painting directly from models, pulled to the front of the picture plane, which gives the painting a startling, tangible quality. However, the graceful way he handled paint and human gestures lends the work a poetic quality unique to the artist.
The gauzy scarf draped over Danaë was a studio prop present in many of Orazio's paintings.
oil on canvas
Framed: 202.5 x 270 x 9 cm (79 3/4 x 106 5/16 x 3 9/16 in.); Unframed: 162 x 228.5 cm (63 3/4 x 89 15/16 in.)
Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund
In a shadowed chamber, where light dared not linger, a father's heart thumped with the weight of a dreadful prophecy. The ancient words whispered of doom—that his own grandson would rise to bring about his end. In desperation, he cast his daughter, Danaë, into a fortress of solitude, locking her away from the world and keeping her safe from the eager hands of anxious suitors.
But hope often finds a way to slip through the tightest of knots. From the heavens above, Jupiter, the king of the gods, looked down upon Danaë. Captivated by her beauty, he transformed himself into dazzling gold, showering her with luminous rays that cascaded like sunlight through the clouds. Each glimmering strand was not merely precious metal, but a promise—a union born of desire and divine power.
In a different era, the brush of the talented Gentileschi would pick up the legacy of masters. She found inspiration in Caravaggio's raw realism, painting her subjects as if they were stepping directly out of the frame. She pulled them close, crashing through the boundaries of the canvas, giving life to the figures in a way that invited onlookers into their world.
Yet, where Caravaggio’s lighting carved out drama, Gentileschi added her own lyrical touch. Each stroke of her brush breathed poetry into the air, and each gesture of her figures spoke softly to the heart. It was this unique approach that lent her works an emotional rhythm, a profound invitation to feel the richness of their stories, woven through time.
In the tapestry of art and myth, their tales intertwine—Danaë’s gilded tragedy and Gentileschi’s expressive legacy reminding us that even in the darkest of prisons, both the divine and art can ignite the spirit.
About the artist
Creating transformative experiences through art “for the benefit of all the people forever.”The Cleveland Museum of Art is renowned for the quality and breadth of its collection, which includes more than 66,500 artworks and spans 6,000 years of achievement in the arts. The artworks shared on this platform are sourced from the museum's Open Access data under the CC0 license. No endorsement is implied.Address: 11150 East Boulevard, Cleveland, OH, USA 44106
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