Danaë

This 1612 painting by Artemisia Gentileschi, executed on copper, shows Danaë reclining on a richly draped bed in a dim room. In the background, a servant in a white headscarf gathers gold coins into the blue folds of her skirt. The scene refers to the shower of gold through which Zeus, in the myth, got past the confinement imposed by Acrisius, king of Argos, to keep his daughter from having children. The union produced Perseus, who unwittingly fulfilled his grandfather's prophecy. Historians disagree about the figure's pose, which seems both open and guarded in its clenched fist and closed legs. Some link it to the sexual violence the painter suffered years earlier, while others see a sympathy for women pressured by unwanted advances. The work is attributed to Artemisia, though it is debated whether her father Orazio, who often worked on copper, had a hand in it. A 1986 cleaning restored the vivid colours of the servant's dress.

Painter

Artemisia Gentileschi

Date

1612

Medium

copper, oil paint

Dimensions

41 × 53 cm

Museum

Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis

Genre

mythological painting, nude

Depicts

nudity, cushion, waist-length hair, red hair, Danaë, lying, shower of gold, bed

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