Danae1.0007_Correggio

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OGCMA s.v. "Danae"

Correggio, 1489?-1534, "(Rape of) Danae,", oil on canvas, 1530-1532. Villa Borghese, Rome, no. 125. Originally executed for a cyle on "The Loves of Jupiter". Copies in Hotel de Ville, Versailles (by F. Stiémart, 1680-1740) and Musée Chartres; both on deposit from Louvre, Paris, nos. 45 and 46.

Eros himself and the little putti take amusement in the falling gold, much as Titian's ancillary figures do in his works on this theme (about two decades later).

Venus and Cupid on a bed, with two putti playing on the floor below.

Danae's attitude is clearly reminiscent of Correggio's Leda (at Berlin's Gemäldegalerie), which was painted for the same cycle on "The Loves of Jupiter" as this canvas.

OGCMA slides are designed by Roger T. Macfarlane for use in Classical Civilization 241 courses at Brigham Young University.
The present resource contains information assembled for The Oxford Guide to Classical Mythology in the Arts, 1400 – 1990’s, edited by J. Davidson Reid (Oxford 1994), and it is used with express permission from Oxford University Press.
Address concerns or inquiries to macfarlane@byu.edu.