Danaids1.0047_Schmidt

Danaids1.0047_Schmidt

National Gallery of Slovenia
OGCMA s.v. "Danaids"

Martin Johann Schmidt (a.k.a. Martin Johann Kremser-Schmidt), 1718-1801, "The Punishment of the Danaids" (1785), oil on copper, 54.5 x 77 cm; Ljubljana, Slovenia, National Gallery of Slovenia NGS 675.

This painting depicts a triangular configuration of the daughters of Danaus toiling at their redundantly futile eternal punishment. In the world of the dead, they draw and try to transport water in unfit vessels.

The painting and its pendant piece, "The Punishment of Actaeon", were effectively canceled by an owner who covered the abundant nudity of the classical subjects with mortar; the two copper plates were then used in a restaurant as oven doors for a time.

Baroque painting of a mythical scene: numerous nude figures gathering water in a grotto with a bearded river god

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.