DionysusAriadne1.0201_LovisCorinth

DionysusAriadne1.0201_LovisCorinth

Catullus 64.251ff.
Ovid Met. 8.172-82
Ov. Heroid. 10
Homer Od. 11.321-25

Lovis Corinth, 1858-1925, "Ariadne in Naxos" (Theseus and sleeping Ariadne; Bacchus and retinue approaching), oil on canvas, 1913, "unlocated".

Bacchus emerges with his fellow revelers from the right. Falling in love with Ariadne on first sight, in a chariot drawn by two tigers, the god approaches. Ariadne reclines, remarkably, in the lap of the very much present Theseus, whose presence might be the most remarkable and novel feature of this picture. The hero rails against the approaching god as other artists do not address. For a treatment of this narrative in a classical mode, cf. 1.0008_Titian.

Lovis Corinth seemed especially drawn to the themes of Bacchanalia; cf. Bacchanalia2.0001_LovisCorinth

A dramatic oil painting depicts figures from Greek mythology, including a frightened warrior, a reclining nude woman, Bacchus, and dancing maenads with tigers, against a seaside landscape.

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.