XIV. The Eighteenth Century

XIV-1 Giovanni Battista Tiepolo,

Apollo Bringing in the Bride

AD 1752-53

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. Apollo Bringing the Bride. Ceiling of the main reception hall of the palace (Residenz) in Würzburg.

The architecture was designed by Neumann in the first half of the Eighteenth Century, and the fresco was added just after mid century (1755).

The painting refers to an event in the Twelfth Century, 600 years before the painting. Beatrice of Burgundy, who was to become the bride of Frederick Barbarossa, arrives, dressed in white, riding through clouds in the chariot of the dawn, accompanied by a host of mythological figures, some of whom threaten to spill into the space below.

Detail of Frederick Barbarossa (Frederick I) seated on throne with winged victory overhead and cupid delivering a sword.

Detail of Silenus and woman (a maenad?).

Detail of Beatrice of Burgundy on the chariot of Apollo, accompanied by erotes.

XIV-2 Jean-Antoine Watteau, Embarkation for Cythera

Jean-Antoine Watteau. Departure for Cythera (or from Cythera?) 1717. Musee du Louvre, Paris.

Also called Pèlerinage à l'île de Cythère (Pilgrimage to the Island of Cythera)

Oil on canvas. Four feet three inches by six feet five inches (1/3 x 1.9 m).

Rolling hills descend to water, across which a rocky coast appears in the distance. The foreground consists of a greensward between trees. At the right, near a broken statue adorned with roses, a man whispers in the ear of a seated woman. Behind them, a man lifts a woman to her feet, and another couple starts down hill, the woman looking back over her shoulder. More figures make a continuous procession to the elaborate boat at the right of the picture, propelled by one twisting figure in the stern. Cupids hover over the boat and flutter off toward the horizon.

Detail, left: Figures in contemporary aristocratic dress disembark from a bark accompanied by erotes.

Detail, right: A couple in contemporary dress seated below a statue of Venus (?). A small child seated in front of the couple. The child is dressed in contemporary clothes, but a quiver of arrows lies on the ground next to it, evoking cupid.

XIV-3 Watteau. Cythera, again.

Compare Watteau's other version (1718).

Similar title used. Either Pilgrimage to Cythera or Voyage to Cythera.

Currently in the Charlottenburg Palace, Berlin.

XIV-4 Clodion (Claude Michel), Maenad and Satyr

AD 1780-90. Small model for larger group. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

XIV-5 Clodion, Bacchante with Babay

AD 1780s. Cleveland Museum of Art.

XIV-6 Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Lovers in the Garden

AD 1771-2. The Frick.

Oil on canvas. ca. 125 x 86 inches.


XIV-7 Jean-Marc Nattier, Duchesse de Chartres as Hebe

ca. AD 1745. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm.


Hebe is the daughter of Zeus and Hera. She is the goddess of youth and vigor. Here, the Duchess of Chartres is depicted as Hebe, an allegory of her youth and beauty. She is shown as cup-bearer for her father, Zeus, depicted as an eagle.

XIV-8 Joshua Reynolds, Sir William Montgomery's Daughters as the Three Graces

AD 1773. Tate Museum, London.

Commonly called Three Ladies Adorning a Term of Hymen.

Hymen is the goddess of marriage.

The three young women are making a garland of flowers with which to adorn a statue behind them in the park.

XIV-9 Étienne Maurice Falconet, Venus of the Doves

view of front

view of back, clear view of shell

mid-18th century. National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Mme de Pompadour, mistress of Louis XVI, used as model for the figure of Venus.

XIV-10 Jacques-Louis David, Paris and Helen

AD 1788. The Louvre.

XIV-11 Antonio Canova, Perseus with the Head of Medusa

ca. AD 1802. Original in the Vatican Museum. Show here is the copy in the Metropolitan Museum, NY.

Compare the Apollo of Belvedere (V-3)

XIV-12 A.R. Mengs, Jupiter Kissing Ganymede

AD 1758.

Mengs painted this fresco expressly to fool the scholar Johann Joachim Winckelmann, the German art historian credited with pioneering the studies of Greek and Roman art. Megs was successful.

XIV 13 Josiah Wedgwood, Apotheosis of Homer

ca. AD 1770

Plaque of Apotheosis of Homer in jasper ware.

XIV-14 Jacques-Louis David, Anromache Weeping over Hector

AD 1783.

XIV-15 Jacques-Louis David, Mars disarmed by Venus and the Graces

AD 1824. Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels.

Persons and Events:

  • Andromache

  • Andromeda

  • Centaur

  • Hector

  • Helen

  • Homer

  • Mars

  • Paris

  • Perseus

  • Polyphemus

  • Theseus

  • Three Graces

  • Monster killing

  • Apollo

  • Bacchante (Maenad)

  • Cupid

  • Flora

  • Hebe

  • Horses of the sun

  • Cythera

  • Journeying

  • Love

  • Triumph

Objects and Places:

  • Painting to hang in houses

  • Painting for sale

  • Private space

  • Political message

  • Paintings for private patrons

  • Palaces

  • Ceremonial space

Texts and Authors: