GodsGoddesses1.0008

GodsGoddesses1.0008_Bellini

ogcma@byu

ClCv241

Mastery

MythMatters

National Gallery of Art website
Ovid Fasti 1.391-440 and 6.319ff.

Giovanni Bellini, "The Feast of the Gods," 1514, landscape repainted by Titian 1529, National Gallery, Washington

Ovid tells the story of how the donkey's braying saved Lotis from Priapus' unwelcome advances.

ML, edition 8, color plate 5

Mythological scene with a gathering of figures, including satyrs, nymphs, and humans, in a lush landscape with trees and mountains

"Both mysterious and comic." (ML)

Priapus is attempting to rape a naiad, who is sleeping, as the gods watch on (oddly).
The gods represented include Jupiter (center, drinking, w/ eagle), Neptune (seated behind Priapus with Ceres? sharing a cup), Mercury (helmet), Bacchus (wreathed, w/ Silenus and a satyr), Hades (sharing a bowl of fruit with Proserpina, w/ golden pomegrante) and others. Perhaps the Bacchus depiction is the most remarkable element of this painting.

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.