Golden Apple of Discord by Jacob Jordaens

The Feast of the Gods or Banquet of the Gods as a subject in art showing a group of deities at table has a long history going back into

antiquity Antiquity or Antiquities may refer to: Historical objects or periods Artifacts *Antiquities, objects or artifacts surviving from ancient cultures Eras Any period before the European Middle Ages (5th to 15th centuries) but still within the histo ...

. Showing Greco-Roman deities, it enjoyed a revival in popularity in the Italian Renaissance, and then in the Low Countries during the 16th century, when it was popular with Northern Mannerist painters, at least partly as an opportunity to show copious amounts of nudity. Often the occasion shown was specifically either the wedding of Cupid and Psyche or that of Peleus and Thetis, but other works show other occasions, especially the ''Feast of Bacchus'', or a generalized feast. While the wedding of Cupid and Psyche is just the happy ending of Psyche's story, the wedding of Peleus and Thetis is part of the grand narrative of Greek mythology. The feast was interrupted by Eris, goddess of discord, who threw the golden Apple of Discord inscribed "for the most beautiful" into the company, provoking the argument that led to the Judgement of Paris, and ultimately to the Trojan War. Eris is sometimes shown in the air with the apple, or the apple with the diners, and sometimes the feast forms a background scene to a painting of the Judgement, or ''vice versa''. This wedding was also used as a political symbol around the time of the marriage of the Dutch leader William the Silent to

Charlotte of Bourbon Charlotte of Bourbon (1546/1547 – 5 May 1582) was a Princess consort of Orange as the third spouse of William the Silent, Prince of Orange, the main leader of the Dutch revolt against the Spanish. She was the fourth daughter of Louis III de Bou ...

in 1575. Generally, despite Thetis being a sea-nymph, depictions of her wedding have the same inland setting as other scenes. A depiction by

Hans Rottenhammer Johann Rottenhammer, or Hans Rottenhammer (1564 – 14 August 1625), was a German painter. He specialized in highly finished paintings on a small scale. Biography He was born in Munich, where he studied until 1588 under Hans Donauer the Eld ...

(1600, Hermitage Museum) probably of the wedding of

Neptune Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun and the farthest known planet in the Solar System. It is the fourth-largest planet in the Solar System by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. It is 17 times ...

and Amphitrite is set in a beach-side pavilion, with the sea full of an unruly crowd of marine mythological creatures. The ''Feast of Achelous'' is derived from Ovid in his '' Metamorphoses'', who describes how Theseus is entertained by the river god in a damp grotto, while waiting for the river's raging flood to subside: "He entered the dark building, made of spongy pumice, and rough tuff. The floor was moist with soft moss, and the ceiling banded with freshwater mussel and oyster shells." The subject was painted a number of times, with Rubens producing an early version with Jan Brueghel the Elder, and a later picture attributed to his "school", and Hendrick van Balen collaborating with Jan Brueghel the Younger. All show much smaller and more decorously behaved groups than the wedding parties. Giovanni - Noces de Thétis et Pelée, Louvre RF 1346

Giovanni - Noces de Thétis et Pelée, Louvre RF 1346

Italian Renaissance

Giovanni Bellini and Titian - The Feast of the Gods - Google Art Project

One of the earliest depictions is a '' cassone'' panel by Bartolomeo di Giovanni from the 1490s (Louvre, ''illustrated''); this is paired with a panel of the ''Procession of Thetis'', another common way of depicting a wedding; artists were unsure what form an actual Olympian wedding ceremony might have taken. A more sophisticated but similar depiction of a rustic picnic eaten on the ground, is ''

The Feast of the Gods ''The Feast of the Gods'' (Italian: ''Il festino degli dei'') is an oil painting by the Italian Renaissance master Giovanni Bellini, with substantial additions in stages to the left and center landscape by Dosso Dossi and Titian. It is one of the ...

'' by

Giovanni Bellini Giovanni Bellini (; c. 1430 – 26 November 1516) was an Italian Renaissance painter, probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venetian painters. He was raised in the household of Jacopo Bellini, formerly thought to have been his father ...

(1514), later changed by Titian (to 1529), a large and important painting; both show the story of

Priapus In Greek mythology, Priapus (; grc, Πρίαπος, ) is a minor rustic fertility god, protector of livestock, fruit plants, gardens and male genitalia. Priapus is marked by his oversized, permanent erection, which gave rise to the medical term ...

and Lotis.Bull, 342 Two major

fresco Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...

s from the end of the High Renaissance showed the wedding banquet of Cupid and Psyche: Raphael's central panel in the " Loggia of Psyche" at the Villa Farnesina in Rome, and Giulio Romano's wall panel in the

Palazzo Te or is a palace in the suburbs of Mantua, Italy. It is a fine example of the mannerist style of architecture, and the acknowledged masterpiece of Giulio Romano. Although formed in Italian, the usual name in English of Palazzo del Te is not that ...

in Mantua. Both of these became very well-known through print versions, often freely adapting the compositions, and inspired a wide range of versions in drawings and media of the decorative arts such as majolica, painted

Limoges enamel Limoges enamel has been produced at Limoges, in south-western France, over several centuries up to the present. There are two periods when it was of European importance. From the 12th century to 1370 there was a large industry producing metal o ...

and pastiglia. Giulio's version seems to show the preparations rather than the feast itself, and only a few of the invited gods have so far arrived. But it is highly atmospheric and its dispersal of the figures across a large setting was to recur in many later depictions. Both frescos showed a good proportion of the participants nude, or almost so, reflecting the practice of recent decades in mythological paintings. The ''

Fête champêtre A fête champêtre was a form of entertainment in the 18th century, taking the form of a garden party. This form of entertainment was particularly practised by the French court, where in the Gardens of Versailles and elsewhere areas of the park ...

'' of Titian (or Giorgione) may represent a mythological subject, if not a feast then at least a picnic of the gods. Around the mid-century Taddeo Zuccari did the ''Wedding of Bacchus and Ariadne'' in fresco in the Villa Giulia, Rome, and in northern Europe Francesco Primaticcio painted that of Peleus and Thetis in a mythological series in the ballroom of the Palace of Fontainebleau.

Frans Floris Frans Floris, Frans Floris the Elder or Frans Floris de Vriendt (17 April 15191 October 1570) was a Flemish painter, draughtsman, print artist and tapestry designer. He is mainly known for his history paintings, allegorical scenes and portraits.< ...

painted a monumental feast in oil (c. 1550,

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

), nearly two metres across, as well as a ''Feast of the Seagods'' (1561,

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

). File:Farnesina Loggia di Psiche. 05.jpg, Raphael's panel in the Loggia of Psyche at the Villa Farnesina, Cupid and Psyche File:Banquet of Amor and Psyche by Giulio Romano.jpg, Giulio Romano,

, Mantua, ''Cupid and Psyche'' File:Frans Floris - Banquet of the Gods - WGA7943.jpg,

, c. 1550, no specific occasion

Northern Mannerism

Hendrik de Clerck - The Nuptials of Thetis and Peleus - WGA5022

The revival of interest in the subject some decades later in Northern Mannerism seems to spring from a large engraving of 1587 by

Hendrik Goltzius Hendrick Goltzius, or Hendrik, (; ; January or February 1558 – 1 January 1617) was a German-born Dutch printmaker, draftsman, and painter. He was the leading Dutch engraver of the early Baroque period, or Northern Mannerism, lauded for his ...

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English) is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland. Haarlem is situated at the northern edge of the Randstad, one of the most populated metropoli ...

of a drawing by

Bartholomeus Spranger Bartholomeus Spranger or Bartholomaeus SprangerBartholomeus Spranger
at the

(now

Rijksmuseum The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the St ...

) that Karel van Mander had brought back from Prague, where Spranger was court painter to

Rudolf II Rudolf II (18 July 1552 – 20 January 1612) was Holy Roman Emperor (1576–1612), King of Hungary and Kingdom of Croatia (Habsburg), Croatia (as Rudolf I, 1572–1608), King of Bohemia (1575–1608/1611) and Archduke of Austria (1576–160 ...

. ''The Feast of the Gods at the Marriage of Cupid and Psyche'' was so large, at 16 7/8 × 33 5/8 in. (43 × 85.4 cm), that it was printed from three different plates. Over 80 figures are shown, placed up in the clouds over a

world landscape The world landscape, a translation of the German ''Weltlandschaft'', is a type of composition in Western painting showing an imaginary panoramic landscape seen from an elevated viewpoint that includes mountains and lowlands, water, and buildings. ...

that can be glimpsed below. The composition borrows from both Raphael and Giulio Romano's versions. Over the next thirty years or so a number of Netherlandish artists painted the subject, usually in small cabinet paintings, often on copper, although ''The Wedding of Peleus and Thetis'' by Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem was enormous at over four metres wide, a commission in 1593 from the

Stadtholder In the Low Countries, ''stadtholder'' ( nl, stadhouder ) was an office of steward, designated a medieval official and then a national leader. The ''stadtholder'' was the replacement of the duke or count of a province during the Burgundian and H ...

Maurice, Prince of Orange Maurice of Orange ( nl, Maurits van Oranje; 14 November 1567 – 23 April 1625) was ''stadtholder'' of all the provinces of the Dutch Republic except for Friesland from 1585 at the earliest until his death in 1625. Before he became Prince o ...

for his palace, and

Jacob Jordaens Jacob (Jacques) Jordaens (19 May 1593 – 18 October 1678) was a Flemish painter, draughtsman and tapestry designer known for his history paintings, genre scenes and portraits. After Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck, he was the leading Fle ...

' ''The Golden Apple of Discord'' (1633, from an oil sketch by

Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque traditio ...

) is also a monumental treatment. Painters who returned to the subject several times include in particular Hendrick van Balen, who was known above all for these subjects, and also Joachim Wtewael, Cornelis van Haarlem,

Cornelis van Poelenburch Cornelis van Poelenburgh or Cornelis van Poelenburch (1594 – 12 August 1667),Cornelis van Poelenburch
...

, and Abraham Bloemaert. Over the same period these same painters, later followed by Rubens, produced many depictions of ''

Sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus ''Sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus'', (Latin, 'Without Ceres and Bacchus, Venus freezes') or ''Sine Cerere et Libero friget Venus'', is a quotation from the Roman comedian Terence (c. 195/185 – c. 159 BC) that became a proverb in the Early M ...

'' ("Without Ceres and Bacchus, Venus freezes", meaning that love needs food and wine to thrive), a proverb derived from the emblem books, which showed just

Ceres Ceres most commonly refers to: * Ceres (dwarf planet), the largest asteroid * Ceres (mythology), the Roman goddess of agriculture Ceres may also refer to: Places Brazil * Ceres, Goiás, Brazil * Ceres Microregion, in north-central Goiás st ...

Bacchus In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; grc, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity, and theatre. The Romans ...

, Venus and

Cupid In classical mythology, Cupid (Latin Cupīdō , meaning "passionate desire") is the god of desire, lust, erotic love, attraction and affection. He is often portrayed as the son of the love goddess Venus (mythology), Venus and the god of war Mar ...

picnicking on the ground in most early versions, or seated at a table in some later ones. It has been suggested that the concentration of images by the Haarlem Mannerists reflects the patronage of the powerful brewers of

Context

Both the weddings of Cupid and Psyche and that of Peleus and Thetis were common subjects in antiquity, going back to Greek

black-figure vase painting Black-figure pottery painting, also known as the black-figure style or black-figure ceramic ( grc, , }), is one of the styles of painting on antique Greek vases. It was especially common between the 7th and 5th centuries BCE, although there are ...

. The latter was perhaps shown in the Roman

cameo glass Cameo glass is a luxury form of glass art produced by cameo glass engraving or etching and carving through fused layers of differently colored glass to produce designs, usually with white opaque glass figures and motifs on a dark-colored backgroun ...

Portland Vase. However such depictions rarely show the wedding feast, preferring the ceremony or processions to it. The earlier paintings may owe something to entertainments ''alla antica'' such as those of the Compagnia della Cassuola ("Company of the Shovel") mentioned by Vasari, where a social confraternity in Florence including artists such as

Giovanni Francesco Rustici Giovan Francesco Rustici, or Giovanni Francesco Rustici, (1475–1554) was an Italian Renaissance painter and sculptor. __NOTOC__ He was born into a noble family of Florence, with an independent income. Rustici profited from study of the Medi ...

and

Andrea del Sarto Andrea del Sarto (, , ; 16 July 1486 – 29 September 1530) was an Italian painter from Florence, whose career flourished during the High Renaissance and early Mannerism. He was known as an outstanding fresco decorator, painter of altar-pieces, ...

held elaborate dinners which might include the attendees dressing as classical gods and re-enacting episodes from mythology. Raphael and Giulio's frescos decorated spaces used for lavish entertaining that might bear comparison with Olympian hospitality; the previous century

Marsilio Ficino Marsilio Ficino (; Latin name: ; 19 October 1433 – 1 October 1499) was an Italian scholar and Catholic priest who was one of the most influential humanist philosophers of the early Italian Renaissance. He was an astrologer, a reviver of ...

had written a thank-you letter to Lorenzo de' Medici that made just that comparison. The later paintings can also be seen in the context of the wider interest in "company scenes" of social occasions in Netherlandish art at the start of the 17th century, expressed in the new genre subject of the merry company, and its "gallant" and "elegant" variations, as well as the continuation of

Pieter Bruegel the Elder Pieter Bruegel (also Brueghel or Breughel) the Elder (, ; ; – 9 September 1569) was the most significant artist of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, a painter and printmaker, known for his landscapes and peasant scenes (so-called genr ...

's scenes of peasant life by his son

Jan Jan, JaN or JAN may refer to: Acronyms * Jackson, Mississippi (Amtrak station), US, Amtrak station code JAN * Jackson-Evers International Airport, Mississippi, US, IATA code * Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), a Syrian militant group * Japanese Article Num ...

and others. The feasts formed a division of the class of small-scale mythological paintings, in which the interest of the figures is very often shared with landscape or

still life A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, m ...

elements. Both of these figure in many feasts, but the emphasis is on a generous range of nude figures, displaying a variety of complicated poses that display the artist's virtuosity. Small groups of non-divine revellers in similar

arcadian Arcadian may refer to: * Arcadian, someone or something from, or related to: ** Arcadia (region), the ancient Greek region ** Arcadia (regional unit), the region in modern Greece ** Accademia degli Arcadi, the Italian literary academy founded in ...

landscape settings are called

bacchanal The Bacchanalia were unofficial, privately funded popular Roman festivals of Bacchus, based on various ecstatic elements of the Greek Dionysia. They were almost certainly associated with Rome's native cult of Liber, and probably arrived in Rome ...

s, and are even more common in art. Other subjects that were popular at the same period showed the entertainment of classical gods by humans, in the story of

Baucis and Philemon In Ovid's moralizing fables collected as ''Metamorphoses'' is his telling of the story of Baucis and Philemon, which stands on the periphery of Greek mythology and Roman mythology. Baucis and Philemon were an old married couple in the region ...

and other tales. ''

The Triumph of Bacchus ''The Triumph of Bacchus'' (Greek title is ''Ο Θρίαμβος του Βάκχου'') is a painting by Diego Velázquez, now in the Museo del Prado, in Madrid. It is popularly known as ''Los borrachos'' or ''The Drinkers'' (politely, also ''The D ...

'' (''Los Baracchos'', 1628) by

Diego Velázquez Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (baptized June 6, 1599August 6, 1660) was a Spanish painter, the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV of Spain and Portugal, and of the Spanish Golden Age. He was an individualistic artist of th ...

, in the

Museo del Prado The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from the ...

, is a famous example of the subject of Bacchus drinking with humans.

Later works

The New Palace at Potsdam in Berlin has a ceiling painting in the Marmorsaal ("Marble Hall") depicting the ''Feast of the Gods on Olympus'' (1769) by the Neoclassical painter

Amédée van Loo Amédée is a French masculine forename. Notable people with the forename include: Persons * Amédée, stage name of Philippe de Chérisey (1923-1985), French writer, radio humorist, surrealist and actor * Amédée Artus (1815-1892), French cond ...

Romantic Nationalism Romantic nationalism (also national romanticism, organic nationalism, identity nationalism) is the form of nationalism in which the state claims its political legitimacy as an organic consequence of the unity of those it governs. This includes ...

extended the range of gods that might be depicted to the Norse gods. In 1863 the Peredvizhniki ("Wanderers") group of progressive artists was founded after several left the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg in disgust after the subject set for the annual Gold Medal contest (the Russian equivalent of the '' Prix de Rome'') was "The Feast of

Odin Odin (; from non, Óðinn, ) is a widely revered Æsir, god in Germanic paganism. Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about him, associates him with wisdom, healing, death, royalty, the gallows, knowledge, war, battle, v ...

in Valhalla", which they thought both un-Russian and of no social relevance."Wanderers" in ''The Oxford Dictionary of Art'', Ed. Ian Chilvers, 2004, Oxford University Press, , 9780198604761
google books
/ref> Later painting, particularly in England, sometimes depicted

fairy A fairy (also fay, fae, fey, fair folk, or faerie) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature found in the folklore of multiple European cultures (including Celtic, Slavic, Germanic, English, and French folklore), a form of spirit, ...

scenes of a somewhat similar types, such as ''

The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania ''The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania'' is an oil on canvas painting by the Scottish artist Sir Joseph Noel Paton. Painted in 1849, it depicts the scene from William Shakespeare's comedy play '' A Midsummer Night's Dream'', when the fairy queen T ...

'' (1849) and its matching ''Reconciliation'', by Sir Joseph Noel Paton.

Notes

References

*Bull, Malcolm, ''The Mirror of the Gods, How Renaissance Artists Rediscovered the Pagan Gods'', Oxford UP, 2005,
google books
*Freedman, Luba, ''Classical Myths in Italian Renaissance Painting'', 2011, Cambridge University Press,
google books
*Liedtke, Walter A., "Frans Hals: Style and Substance", ''Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art'', 2011,
google books
* Slive, Seymour, ''Dutch Painting, 1600–1800'', Yale UP, 1995, * Santos, R. de Mambro, "The Beer of Bacchus. Visual Strategies and Moral Values in Hendrick Goltzius' Representations of Sine Cerere et Libero Friget Venus", in ''Emblemi in Olanda e Italia tra XVI e XVII secolo'', ed. E. Canone and L. Spruit, 2012, Olschki Editore, Florence
web text on academia.edu
*Vlieghe, H. (1998), ''Flemish art and architecture, 1585–1700'', Yale University Press Pelican history of art. New Haven: Yale University Press. *Woolett, Anne T., van Suchtelen, Ariane, eds, ''Rubens & Brueghel: A Working Friendship'', 2006, Getty Publications,
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{{Cupid and Psyche Iconography Dutch painting Flemish art Visual motifs