Danaë1.0088_BurneJones

A woman in a red robe watches construction workers and figures emerge from a medieval gate

With a rather medieval mythologization, Burne-Jones here transcends the distinct eroticism of the Danaë myth that had characterized her iconography since the Renaissance and earlier — artists having come to set Danaë customarily already within the tower, awaiting or receiving Zeus, eroticized subject matter and narrative material readily justifying the treatment of the female nude. Quite conversely, all detail in this painting glorifies Danaë's chastity, "a prefiguration of the Annunciation" (Reid).

Burne-Jones contrasts marvelously the solitary, fertile of Danaë's present with the busy male world bustling around the powerful Acrisius. Quite unworried of the effect it will have on his lovely daughter, Acrisius's selfish decision is aimed at self-preservation. The tower where Danaë will be imprisoned rises above Acrisius king and dozens of men hang on his decision. "The tragedy of her coming immurement is heightened by the tension between the two regions of the painting, the garden with its exquisite flowers and the palace courtyard, through whose iron-studded gate she must soon be taken to a life bereft of freedom and human company." (ML 8th edition, color plate 20)