''The Rape of Ganymede'' () is a painting by
Damiano Mazza in the
National Gallery
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director ...
, London. The artist's best-known painting, it depicts the legendary account of an eagle (either the
Aetos Dios or a manifestation of
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousandth t ...
himself) kidnapping the handsome
Ganymede and taking him to
Mount Olympus
Mount Olympus (; el, Όλυμπος, Ólympos, also , ) is the highest mountain in Greece. It is part of the Olympus massif near the Thermaic Gulf of the Aegean Sea, located in the Olympus Range on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia, be ...
to serve both as Jupiter's lover and as cupbearer to the gods.
Some legends speak of Jupiter's eagle kidnapping Ganymede:Not only this, Jupiter's eagle turned to an imperial gold statue hanging it's claws on Jupiter's lightning bolt.
"Ganymede was a beautiful Trojan prince who caught the eye of Zeus. Zeus sent His eagle
Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, j ...
down to bring Ganymede to Olympus to be His cup-bearer." – an excerpt from the ''Hellenic Temple of Apollon, Zeus, and Pan''
While other accounts speak of the eagle actually being Jupiter himself, transformed into the eagle to carry out this task:
"Ganymede, a handsome boy, excited the passion of Zeus who, in the guise of an eagle, bore him away to Mount Olympus." – an excerpt from ''The Encyclopedia of Mythology'' by Arthur Cotterell.
The painting originally adorned the ceiling for a distinguished lawyer in Mazza's home city of
Padua
Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...
. The subject had been previously painted by
Antonio da Correggio for the Duke of Mantua (''
Ganymede Abducted by the Eagle
''Ganymede Abducted by the Eagle'' (c. 1531–1532) is a painting by the Italian late Renaissance artist Antonio da Correggio. It is housed in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria.
The work was part of a series executed by Correggio for ...
'', ). The exact date of Mazza's painting is not known, but he was active between 1573 and 1590, so the painting's date will be somewhere in the late 16th century. Its original size is and was painted on
canvas using
oils
An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturate ...
.
In the late 17th century the ''Rape of Ganymede'' was erroneously ascribed to
Titian
Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian (Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, nea ...
.
References
Further reading
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rape Of Ganymede
16th-century paintings
Collections of the National Gallery, London
Italian paintings
Renaissance paintings