Athena1.0051_Spranger

Bartholomäus Spranger, "Minerva Vanquishing Ignorance", aka "The Triumph of Wisdom," oil on canvas, ca. 1591, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, inv. 1133 (1503).

"...an astonishing make-over, and she never looks as glamorous anywhere else..." (M. Bull, The Mirror of the Gods (OUP, 2005), 355.)

"The widespread and entirely un-ancient nakedness that characterizes A[thena] after Benvenuto Cellini's bronze on the pedestal of the Perseus monument (1554, Florence, Loggia dei Lanzi) — incidentally in contrast to the other renowned small-scale bronzes of the Renaissance by Jacopo Sansovino and Giambologna — is striking. As ruler of scholars and artists, fighting ignorance while scantily clad, she appears as able-bodied as the Archangel Michael yet as alluring as Aphrodite [in the Spranger picture]. This startling exposure, justifiable only in allegorical terms, culminates in Hendrick Goltzius' double portrait of A[thena] and Hermes, both naked apart from their helmets (1611, Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum[=Athena1.0042_Goltzius]). Lavinia Fontana, who shows a rear view of A[thena] dressing, can at least cite Homer, and she also conceals indecent body parts, unlike in the image type of the Toilet of Aphrodite (1613, Rome, Galleria, Borghese[=Athena1.0066_Fontana])." (C. Schmälzle, s.v. "Athena" in Moog-Grünewald RMM 163.