Arkivism
Five Scenes from Classical Mythology
Public domain

Five Scenes from Classical Mythology

anonymous · c. 1700 - c. 1790 · painting technique; glass; oak (wood)

From the collection of Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.

About this work

Five glasses with scenes from classical mythology in a wooden frame. On the glass farthest to the left: a running man and woman, both with an upraised hand holding a stone. On the stones in the background a human face and a human upper body. A third stone flies through the air in the background. Probably Deucalion and Pyrrha are depicted here. They throw stones over their shoulders, from which new humans grow. (Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book I 313-415). The glass to the right of that: Jason, with spear in classical armor, fights the dragon guarding the Golden Fleece. The Golden Fleece itself hangs in the tree around which the dragon has coiled. The central glass: Jason and the fire-breathing bulls. Jason, on the left, protects himself against the fire from the nostrils of the two bulls with a bunch of herbs. The glass to the right of that: Athena turns Arachne into a spider. On the left a loom, on the right the goddess pointing to the spider in a web above the loom.

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam’s own description
Credit lineVijf taferelen uit de Klassieke mythologie. c. 1700 - c. 1790. anonymous. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Public domain.

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