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| 'The Feast of the Gods' (1635-1640), Musée Magnin, by Jan Harmensz van Biljert |
Apparently not a lot of people know this painting of a pagan feast linked to the gods of Olympus. The Musée Magnin describes it:
The gods have assembled on Mount Olympus for a banquet to celebrate the marriage of Thetis and Peleus. On the left are Minerva, Diana, Mars and Venus accompanied by Cupid. Flora, the goddess of spring, stands behind them. Apollo, wearing his crown, and identifiable by his lyre, presides at the centre of the table. Further away, we can see Hercules with his club and Neptune with his trident. On the extreme right, Eris has placed the apple of disorder on the table. Certain gods are absent, hinted at by the presence of Juno’s peacock, probably because the canvas was cut away on the left-hand side. The theme of the gods’ festivities was popular in Holland; Hendrick Goltzius’ engraving, Le Mariage de Psyché et de l’Amour [The Marriage of Cupid and Psyche] sparked off a huge output of works illustrating this subject.
Biljert was in Rome in the early 1620s, and like his fellow artists from Utrecht - Ter Brugghen, Honthorst, Baburen – he was impressed by Caravaggio’s art. The Satyr dancing on the table and Bacchus lying in the foreground, holding a bunch of grapes above his mouth, recall the naturalism of Caravaggio, albeit somewhat tempered: ochre-coloured flesh and figures seen close up in unorthodox poses. However, the considerable popularity that this Italian painter enjoyed would not last. His influence had all but disappeared by 1630, when Biljert turned towards a new international artistic trend, Classicism. The frieze-like composition, painting en camaieu, the prevalence of drawing and the luminosity of the daylight in this painting are a response to this new direction.
[Hat tip: Linda Cordair]
UPDATE:
Terry reminds us in the comments that this isn't the only painting of godly tabletop bacchanalia. It was a popular theme at one time!
A much more famous painting of the Olympian gods feasting at a long banquet table is that of Raphael, called 'The Wedding Banquet of Cupid and Psyche,' located at the Villa Farnesina in Rome, painted a century earlier than Biljert's Feast of the Gods. And unlike Biljert's piece [which has unfortunately had the left section removed], Raphael's includes all the Olympian gods.
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'Wedding Banquet of Cupid and Psyche' (1517), Fresco, Villa Farnesina, Rome, by Raphael |
7 comments:
A much more famous painting of the Olympian gods feasting at a long banquet table is that of Raphael, called The Wedding Banquet of Cupid and Psyche, located at the Villa Farnesina in Rome, painted a century earlier than Biljert's Feast of the Gods. And unlike Biljert's piece, Raphael's includes all the Olympian gods.
Nope. Caught!
https://x.com/SarahisCensored/status/1817695062538461461
Nope, not caught. One persons supposition versus everyone else saying it was based on van Biljert's painting is meaningless.
The "one person" in this case being the person literally at the centre of the performance.
I appreciated the initial honesty, even though such hostility towards Christianity is hardly unknown in the gay community (naturally enough) and therefore comes as no surprise, although it was tainted by the subsequent cowardice in the face of the backlash.
He should go into politics!
I really took that as sarcasm because people were mistaking it for The Last Supper.
And the people in the comments there saying it doesn't look anything like Rottenheimer's painting also titled "Feast of the Gods" is disingenuous at best when they posted the name of the artist.
The siene is pronounced the same in French for the river, the last supper, and a stage. It was literally a pun on three things pronounced the same in French so it was absolutely the last supper.
The biljert/feast of the Gods thing was just France Rick rolling all of you who can’t speak French. The ultimate irony. French people hate those who can’t speak French and there all of you are believing “feast of the gods” while they are snickering at your expense.
It was the last supper. Any French speaking person knows this. The Rick roll was good and half the world bought it. The art was mediocre and not respectful. All in all, this represented France exactly as they are.
@Anonymous: Seine v Cène v Scène. Interesting idea.
I quite liked this observation, from Felix Mueller:
The three major pillars of the West are Greece, Rome and Christianity.
You can interpret the Olympics outrage as an instance of the Greek pillar clashing with the Christian pillar ��
"Christians usually like to hang out with the Roman pillar which after all enabled them.
Seculars like to hang out with the pre-Christian and already somewhat secular Greek pillar.
The whole liberal/conservative conflict can be somewhat reduced to a Greek/Roman-Christian conflict ��
That's kind of a broader clash that adds on to the existing altruism/egoism clash - which also roughly moves along the same lines.
"I can rationalise this three-pillar framework together in a lot of ways �� and sound real smart.
And now you can, too.
"Anyway, we should mostly embrace Greece and the Roman legal influence and throw the rest out the window.
Yeah, yeah, human dignity and rights sorta came from Christianity - but you can synthesise that (and with much better grounding) with secular stuff as well.
Contradictions exist among the pillars - and contradictions can't exist in reality.
One or more pillars have to fall, eventually."
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