''The Rape of Ganymede'' (also called ''The Abduction of Ganymede'') is an
oil painting
Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...
of 1635 by the
Dutch Golden Age painter
Dutch Golden Age painting is the painting of the Dutch Golden Age, a period in Dutch history roughly spanning the 17th century, during and after the later part of the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) for Dutch independence.
The new Dutch Repub ...
Rembrandt
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally consid ...
, depicting the myth of Ganymede. It is in the collection of the
Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister
The Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (, ''Old Masters Gallery'') in Dresden, Germany, displays around 750 paintings from the 15th to the 18th centuries. It includes major Italian Renaissance works as well as Dutch and Flemish paintings. Outstandin ...
in
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...
.
Painting
This painting was documented by
Hofstede de Groot
Cornelis Hofstede de Groot (9 November 1863 – 14 April 1930), was a Dutch art collector, art historian and museum curator.
Life
He was born in Dwingeloo and spent some time in Switzerland in his youth due to weak lungs, where he learned Germa ...
in 1915, who wrote:
207. THE RAPE OF GANYMEDE. Sm. 197; Bode 79; Dut. 106; Wb. 70; B-HdG. 197. The eagle of Zeus, seen in front with out-stretched wings, rises towards the heavens. He holds with his beak the clothing, and with his talons the left arm, of the fair curly-haired boy, who, turned sharply to the left and almost seen from the back, faces round to the spectator as if crying loudly, and with his right hand tries to repulse the bird. His light blue dress and shirt are pulled up by the eagle's claws so as to expose the whole of the boy's lower limbs. On the left the corner of a scarf with a tassel flaps in the wind. The boy, who in his fright makes water, holds cherries in his left hand. Bright light falls from the left full on the boy. The sombre background contains on the left at foot some clumps of trees, before which in the foreground are the pinnacles of a building. Full length, life size. Signed at top on the hem of the shirt, "Rembrandt ft. 1635"; oak panel, 68 1/2 inches by 52 inches. A drawing showing a sketch for the picture is in the Dresden Print-room; reproduced by Lippmann, No. 136. Engraved by C. G. Schultze, by A. Cardon in Reveil, by L. Noel in "The Dresden Gallery." Mentioned by Vosmaer, pp. 154, etc., 507; by Bode, pp. 439, 568; by Dutuit, p. 28; by
Michel
Michel may refer to:
* Michel (name), a given name or surname of French origin (and list of people with the name)
* Míchel (nickname), a nickname (a list of people with the nickname, mainly Spanish footballers)
* Míchel (footballer, born 1963), ...
, pp. 221, etc., 553
70-71, 438
7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube.
As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has greatly symbolic associations in religion, mythology, ...
''Sales''. Amsterdam, April 26, 1716 (Hoet, i. 191), No. 33 (175 florins). W. van Velthuyzen, Rotterdam, April 15, 1751, No. 46. Bought in the same year at Hamburg through Heinecken for Dresden. In the Dresden Gallery, 1908 catalogue, No. 1558.
Hofstede de Groot did not comment on the theme of this painting at all, though Smith before him found it highly unusual when he wrote:
197. The Rape of Ganymede. If the picture (for the present description is taken from a print) be really by Rembrandt, his intention must have been to burlesque the mythological subject above stated, for he has represented the beautiful Ganymede as a great lubberly child, with a blubbering grimace of countenance, sprawling, with extended arms, in the talons and beak of the eagle Jupiter. The bird has seized him by his unclassical raiments, the weight of his fat body has drawn his clothes up to his shoulders, and left his lower extremities in a state of nudity, and is thus bearing him through the murky air to Olympus. Engraved by A. Cardon. 6 ft. 3 in. by 2 ft. 8 in.—C. Now in the Dresden Gallery.
Interpretation
Rembrandt's depiction of the reluctant Ganymede should be seen not in the Renaissance context of the homo-erotic
catamite
In Homosexuality in ancient Greece, ancient Greece and Homosexuality in ancient Rome, Rome, a catamite (Latin: ''catamitus'') was a Puberty, pubescent boy who was the intimate companion of an older male, usually in a pederastic relationship. ...
theme, but in a relatively new Protestant Baroque interpretation of Ganymede as a beloved child "abducted from life too soon". In the 1670s the painter
Nicolaes Maes
Nicolaes Maes (January 1634December 1693 (buried 24 December 1693)) was a Dutch painter known for his genre scenes, portraits, religious compositions and the occasional still life. A pupil of Rembrandt in Amsterdam, he returned to work in his n ...
even made a whole series of paintings of Ganymedes that are considered deathbed portraits of children.
File:Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn - The Rape of Ganymede - Google Art Project.jpg, Early sketch by Rembrandt in the Kupferstich-Kabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
File:C.G. Schultze - Die Entführung des Ganymed.jpg, ''Die Entführung des Ganymed'', by Christian Gottfried Schultze, c. 1780
File:Nicolaes Maes - George de Vicq as Ganymede - 1681 - Fogg Art Museum.jpg, ''George de Vicq as Ganymede'', by Nicolaes Maes, 1681, Fogg Art Museum
An inventory, made on 17 February 1671, of the estate of Catharina van der Pluym, widow of Willem Schilperoort and aunt of Rembrandt's great-nephew and pupil
RKD
The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: RKD-Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center i ...
See also
*
List of paintings by Rembrandt
The following is a list of paintings by Rembrandt that are accepted as autograph by the Rembrandt Research Project. For other catalogues raisonnés of Rembrandt, see the "Rembrandt" navigation box below.
See also
*List of etchings by Rembrandt
* ...