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Oedipus and the Sphinx: Gustave Moreau's Staring Contest
In 1864, French painter Gustave Moreau exhibited Oedipus and the Sphinx at the Paris Salon. The thirty-eight-year-old artist spent three years and thirty preparatory studies completing the work, earning a medal and gaining recognition from prominent art critics. The Paris Salon of 1864 In 1864, Room M was the main attraction at the annual Paris Salon. Visitors gathered in large numbers to view paintings by Jean-François Millet alongside the work of Gustave Moreau. Moreau was thirty-eight years old and had trained under the history painter François-Édouard Picot. Although Moreau had disdained the Salon in previous years, he decided to submit Oedipus and the Sphinx to the 1864 exhibition. His submission earned him a Salon medal, establishing his presence within the official French exhibition system. Many visitors entered Room M primarily to see two new canvases by Ernest Meissonier, who was celebrating his thirtieth anniversary at the Salon. Meissonier had debuted in 1834 with A Visit to the Burgomaster and had shown work at seventeen Salons, yet he had not exhibited for three years prior to 1864. He approached the exhibition with self-doubts regarding The Battle of Solferino, a major commission commemorating the Emperor. Meissonier spent four years working on the painting but remained concerned that he had failed to capture His Majesty at his moment of glory. A few weeks before the Salon opened, Meissonier expressed his frustration in a private letter regarding his struggle with the commission. He wrote that it was grievous, after so many years of effort and reliance on what he had learned, to acknowledge that he felt powerless to succeed as well as he wished at the first task requested by the Emperor. Despite Meissonier's central presence in Room M, Moreau's new painting drew sustained attention from visitors and critics throughout the exhibition. The Critical Response in Room M Moreau spent three years and executed thirty preliminary studies to complete Oedipus and the Sphinx. His detailed preparation paid off when major Parisian art critics greeted the canvas with enthusiastic reviews. Critics including Théophile Gautier, Paul de Saint-Victor, and Maxime du Camp praised the work, heralding Moreau as a significant artistic force. The painting depicts the mythic confrontation between Oedipus and the Sphinx, a composition that now resides in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. A review published in Le Temps expressed warm approval of Moreau's contribution to the Salon. The critic wrote that the painter represented unflagging effort, devotion to the Old Masters, and the application of sound principles and traditions. This reception established Moreau's reputation among intellectuals. Following his success in 1864, Moreau began creating paintings in a more Baroque style while continuing to depict unreal worlds of fantasy and imagination on his canvases. Oedipus and the Sphinx MET DT2132. CC0; source: Wikimedia Commons. Artistic Background and Training Gustave Moreau was born in Paris, the son of an architect. In his teenage years, he began formal instruction with the history painter François-Édouard Picot, who lived from 1786 to 1868. From the age of twenty, Moreau continued his studies at the École des Beaux-Arts. His early style was strongly influenced by his friend Théodore Chassériau, who lived from 1819 to 1856, as well as by Eugène Delacroix, who lived from 1798 to 1863. Moreau expanded his aesthetic approach through travel in Italy, completing visits in 1841 and 1857. These Italian trips encouraged him to blend elements of High Renaissance art with Romanticism. He focused primarily on the intellectual content of his themes, examining religious stories and mythological subjects for their underlying meanings and sentiments. Turning away from a nineteenth-century world increasingly dominated by science and technology, Moreau developed a distinctive style that incorporated symbolic elements alongside romantic imagery. Technique, Symbolism, and Seclusion Moreau developed a unique painting method characterised by thick, smooth paint application and intense colours. His works featured a flowing style alongside symbolic elements and embellished details. However, his interest in embellished details frequently prompted accusations of pretentiousness from certain observers. Because Moreau was sensitive to disapproval, he was often reluctant to exhibit his pictures publicly. He spent prolonged periods in seclusion, refraining from submitting his work to public exhibitions. Because Moreau possessed private financial means, he did not need to rely on Salon medals or public sales to sustain his artistic production. Over time, he became appreciated by intellectuals and grew more willing to exhibit his work. Following Oedipus and the Sphinx, he produced Jason in 1865, now in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. Moreau became recognised as a precursor of the Symbolist Movement, exploring themes such as the myth of Orpheus, where a girl adorned with iridescent jewels holds the killed musician's severed head upon his lyre. Academic Career and Museum Legacy Moreau continued to paint fantastical subjects throughout the following decades. He completed The Apparition between 1874 and 1876, followed by Galatea around 1880 and Hesiod and the Muse in 1891. In 1892, Moreau joined the faculty of the École des Beaux-Arts as a professor. As a teacher, he proved inspiring to his students by bringing out their individual talents and self-expression rather than attempting to impose his own aesthetic ideas upon them. Moreau taught several students who became prominent artists, including Albert Marquet and Henri Matisse. His favourite pupil was Georges Rouault. Upon his death, Moreau left his Parisian house and its contents to the nation to establish the Moreau Museum. Rouault became the first curator of the museum, preserving the artist's home and work. Due to his focus on unreal worlds and fantasy imagery, Moreau was later recognised as a forerunner of Surrealism.
The Morrígan and Cú Chulainn
During single combat, the Morrígan offers Cú Chulainn love and aid, then threatens to obstruct him after he rejects her. She attacks as an eel, wolf and heifer, before meeting him as an old milkmaid, where their hostility moves towards reconciliation. The Morrígan and Cú Chulainn The Morrígan offered Cú Chulainn her love and aid while he fought in single combat. He rejected her. She warned him that she would hinder him at the hardest point of the fight. She would take the form of an eel, trip him in the ford, and attack him there. Cú Chulainn answered that he would catch the eel and crush its ribs with his toes. He would leave a lasting mark on her unless he removed it with a blessing. She then threatened to become a grey she-wolf and drive cattle into the ford against him. Cú Chulainn said that he would throw a sling-stone at her and burst the eye in her head. She also said that she would take the form of a hornless red heifer. She would lead the herd through the ford and pools, trample him in the water, and remain unknown to him. During the fighting, an eel wrapped three coils around Cú Chulainn’s feet and brought him down in the ford. Léch attacked him with a sword, and the water turned red with his blood. Bricriu taunted him for being overcome by a small creature. Cú Chulainn rose, struck the eel, and smashed it. The combat continued. He later fought Loch with the sword and the gae bolga. After Loch fell, Cú Chulainn cut off his head, and great weariness came over him. The Morrígan then appeared as a squint-eyed old woman milking a cow with three teats. Cú Chulainn asked her for a drink. This meeting followed her attacks in animal forms and his earlier rejection of her. The account presents her approach as a reconciliation after their conflict. Source note: Primary text: the ancient sources. Corpus check: Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore; The Táin : translated from the Irish epic Táin Bó Cualinge. The Death of Meche Mac Cécht killed Meiche before the serpents within him could mature. Meiche was the son of the Mórrígan and had three hearts. Three great serpents were coiled within each heart. If they reached maturity, they would break out of his body and devastate the land. One account says that they would split his heart open and devour all Ireland. Mac Cécht killed Meiche to prevent this danger. After the killing, Mac Cécht burned the heart to ashes. He threw the ashes into a river, whose waters boiled and killed every living creature in them. Another account says that he threw the burned remains of Meiche’s body into the Barrow River. The accounts differ over whether the remains were ashes or burned body parts, and over the river named. Both describe their destruction after Meiche’s death because of the danger posed by the serpents. Meiche is also named Mechi or Merca. The accounts identify Mac Cécht, a warrior of the Tuatha Dé Danann, as the killer. They name the Mórrígan as Meiche’s mother, not as the person who killed him. They give the same numbers for his hearts and serpents: Meiche had three hearts, and each heart contained three serpents. The Death of Meche. Original MythSource illustration created for this story; not a historical artwork. Source note: Primary text: the ancient sources. Corpus check: Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore. The Morrígan and the Dagda at the Ford The Morrígan stood astride the River Unius in Connacht, with one foot on each bank. She washed the clothes of those who were about to die in battle. The black-winged goddess was associated with war and prophecy. She was also known as a magician who cast oracles and foretold the future. The Dagda came upon her at the river. He saw the enormous goddess bending over the stream and was overcome with desire. He had many mates among the Irish goddesses. At the ford, he had intercourse with the Morrígan. The encounter satisfied her. The Dagda was preparing to fight for the Tuatha Dé Danann against the Fomorians at Mag Tuired. The Morrígan agreed to support his side in the battle on the following day. She would remain at the edge of the fighting and sing magical chants as the Tuatha Dé Danann faced their enemies. Her support came before the second battle of Mag Tuired, when the Tuatha Dé Danann fought to drive out the Fomorians. The account links the meeting at the river with her promise to aid the Dagda and his people in the coming battle. Source note: Primary text: the ancient sources. Corpus check: Celtic Mythology; Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore.
Odilon Redon's Cyclops: The Monster Who Hides
The image of the Cyclops Polyphemus hiding on distant rocks or watching nymphs from afar developed through Renaissance and Baroque visual art. Works by Sebastiano del Piombo and Nicolas Poussin transformed Ovidian mythology into quiet pastoral compositions, exploring the giant's song, human agriculture and hidden desires. Classical Statues and Renaissance Frescoes In 1511, the banker Agostino Chigi sought to marry the illegitimate daughter of the Gonzaga family. After those hopes were disappointed, Chigi travelled to Venice, met Francesca Ordeaschi, a young girl of humble stock, and brought her to Rome. In Rome, Chigi commissioned frescoes representing a love story from Greek mythology. The artistic choices for these frescoes drew directly upon an ancient classical statue of Polyphemus in the collection of Cardinal Raffaele Riario. The French traveller Claude de Bellièvre saw Cardinal Riario's statue in Rome around 1514 or 1515. In his unpublished manuscript titled Noctes Romanae, Bellièvre described the marble as an image of physical power and submission. He noted that the statue possessed a huge, hairy head, a beard and empty eye sockets, with its single eye in the centre of the forehead gouged out by Ulysses. Sebastiano del Piombo used this marble source for his fresco of Polyphemus created around 1512-13, painted alongside Raphael's fresco of Galatea. Sebastiano modified the ancient sculpture by replacing the body of the dead Acis between the giant's legs with a pastoral stick, a zuffolo pipe and a companion dog. In Ovid's Metamorphoses, Polyphemus sings his song of love and loyalty to Galatea from a high rock on his island. Galatea flees from the giant after he kills her lover Acis. Sebastiano's fresco shows the seated Cyclops looking off into the distance, holding his musical instruments to sing rather than engaging in violent action. The fresco suited Chigi's desire to depict a powerful man's love for a beautiful nymph. Poussin and the Calmer Giant of 1627 Nicolas Poussin addressed the myth of Acis and Galatea in a painting created between 1627 and 1628, now held in the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin. In Ovid's poem, Polyphemus is described as highly agitated and satirical when serenading Galatea. Poussin altered this disposition significantly. His painting depicts Polyphemus sitting quietly on a rock in the background, playing his musical pipes while seemingly unaware of the lovers embracing below. The foreground of Poussin's 1627 work displays Acis and Galatea embracing in a kiss. Ovid describes Acis as a youth of sixteen with soft cheeks. Galatea is a deity and nereid, making her the superior partner in the relationship. Poussin depicts Galatea as the active lover, gazing into Acis's eyes and holding his neck. Above the water, two erotes fly and shoot arrows of love at cavorting sea gods, who then accost uninhibited nereids. While Ovid describes Galatea's repulse of Polyphemus as forceful and obstinate, Poussin presents her demeanour toward Acis as mild. The uninhibited nereids offering no resistance to the sea gods contrast with the unstated tension of Galatea's distaste for Polyphemus's advances. In Ovid's narrative, Polyphemus is feminised by his song, whereas Galatea becomes masculinised by her stubborn resistance to the giant's unwanted desires. 1914 Redon Zyklop anagoria. Public domain; source: Wikimedia Commons. The Sicilian Countryside and Human Agriculture In 1649, Poussin completed the oil painting Landscape with Polyphemus for Jean Pointel, a French banker and silk merchant. Pointel also commissioned Poussin's Eliezer and Rebecca, now in the Louvre. The 1649 painting, measuring 150 by 198 centimetres, is preserved in the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. The composition presents a moment in early human history when mankind discovered the practices of agriculture. In the middle distance of the St. Petersburg canvas, men are shown digging, ploughing and watching over their agricultural flocks. Classical mythology associates the Cyclopes with the Golden Age that existed before the invention of agriculture, a period when humans lived entirely off the natural fruits of the earth. Polyphemus sitting on the mountain top symbolises this older age that recedes as human cultivation advances across the land. The background depicts Polyphemus seated on a high mountain top, playing his pipes to an invisible Galatea who disports herself in the sea visible on the far right. The setting represents the contrast between barren mountains and fertile plains typical of the Sicilian countryside, particularly in western Sicily. Poussin rendered this general Sicilian environment without copying a single specific geographic site. Hidden Nymphs and Watching Satyrs According to the writer Félibien, Jean Pointel specifically requested that Poussin paint a composition containing several girls showing different aspects of female beauty. Poussin fulfilled this request in the 1649 Hermitage painting by placing three semi-nude water nymphs in the immediate foreground. These water nymphs represent the fertility that water brings to the soil. One of the nymphs features hair of a blue-green colour matching the surrounding reeds. Behind bushes on the right side of the canvas, satyrs hide and secretly gaze at the nymphs. These satyrs act as traditional symbols of animal fertility, complementing the vegetable fertility symbolised by the water nymphs. The most prominent nymph in the foreground is identified as Galatea. She is shown wringing out her wet hair while listening to the sound of Polyphemus's distant music. This details Ovid's Metamorphoses, where Galatea describes hiding beneath a rock and resting in the lap of Acis while hearing the giant's rustic piping echo across the mountains. Ovid notes that Charybdis combed Galatea's hair while Galatea recounted her tale. By placing the hiding satyrs near the resting nymphs, Poussin connects Ovidian storytelling with visual themes of hidden observation. Narrative Contrast and Visual Tradition The treatments of Polyphemus by Sebastiano del Piombo and Nicolas Poussin establish visual patterns for representing the monster in myth. Rather than portraying the giant solely as a violent brute, both artists show Polyphemus removed from the immediate central action, perched on rocks or distant mountains with his musical instruments. The seated position originates partly from the classical marble once owned by Cardinal Riario. In Poussin's paintings, the physical separation between the giant and Galatea heightens the narrative contrast. In the 1627 Dublin painting, Polyphemus plays calmly in the background while Acis and Galatea embrace below. In the 1649 St. Petersburg painting, Polyphemus plays on his distant mountain top while Galatea listens from the foreground among her companion nymphs.