Today, Artmajeur takes you to the edge of terror, where demons and creatures of all kinds flourish among men. Between fascination, folklore, and fiction: Make way for amazement!
Pieter Paul Rubens, Medusa, circa 1617. Moravian Gallery in Brno, Czech Republic.
1. Saturn Devouring his Children
Saturn is the Roman equivalent of the god Cronos in Greek mythology. He's the son of Ouranos (God of Heaven) and Gaia (Goddess of Earth). Despite this prestigious family tree, this Titan would experience a particularly stressful life trajectory.
It all starts at his birth. His father, Ouranos, is a primordial deity who reigns as master on the earth. Immortal, toxic and suspicious, his deepest fear is to be dethroned one day by a deity more powerful than him. Because caution is king, he decides to lock up all his offspring in the bowels of the Earth (technically in his wife, Gaia), so that they can never compete with his celestial power.
Lazar Widman, Cronus Carrying off Two Infants, circa 1742. Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Gaïa, humiliated, dreams of revenge and asks her children to confront their father in order to be delivered from their fatal captivity. All of them refuse to oppose their father, all of them, except one: Saturn of course. One night, as Ouranos approaches Gaia to fertilize her as he does every night, Saturn emasculates him with a sickle and becomes the new King of the Gods.
Since all good things come to an end, Saturn is quickly caught by fate. The oracles predict that he himself will be dethroned by one of his children. More brutally than his father, he decides to devour them to escape this macabre fate: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon will be the victims of his sharp teeth.
Francisco de Goya, Saturn Devouring His Son, c. 1819. Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain.
His wife, devastated and terrorized, decides to hide the last child so that he will not be nibbled by this awful Titan. This new-born is Jupiter (Zeus for the Greeks). And you know the story: this one will succeed in defeating his father to establish his power and will force his progenitor to drink a potion that will make him vomit his brothers and sisters so that they reign with him. A beautiful epic mixing toxic masculinities, cannibalism, and vomit. Happy Halloween!
Giulia Lama, Saturn Devouring His Child, 1735. Private collection.
2. The Temptation of Saint Anthony
For this second mystical story, let's focus on a very crazy myth of the Christian religion: The Temptation of Saint Anthony. This legend tells us the unusual story of Anthony the Great: born around the year 251 in Egypt, son of a family of rich Christian farmers, Anthony quickly gave himself up to religion. Orphaned at the age of 20, he distributes all his material possessions to the poor of the city and leaves to live as a hermit in the deep countryside and then in the desert, to meditate and pray all day long.
Pieter Huys, The Temptation of Saint Anthony, c. 1547. Musée du Louvre, Paris.
It is during this long pilgrimage in the desert of Egypt that Saint Anthony will undergo the temptations of the Devil, who will take the appearance of strange terrestrial voluptuaries. Naked women, monsters, and hybrid creatures jostle to corrupt the young Saint, considered by the Devil as a model of Christian exemplarity to be destroyed.
Max Ernst, The Temptation of Saint Anthony, 1945. Lehmbruck Museum, Germany.
Of course, legend says that Anthony the Great never succumbed to these temptations. His life of poverty and chastity, entirely dedicated to prayer, is the direct heritage of the monastic way of life still in force today.
Michelangelo, The Torment of Saint Anthony, c. 1487. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas.
The hermit tempted by the Devil becomes a symbol of resilience and resistance to the baser instincts, but behind this (somewhat too) wise and moralistic story lies an infinite source of inspiration for artists. From the Middle Ages to the strange surrealist paintings of Salvador Dali and Max Ernst, Art has transformed this snoring subject into a powerful iconography, in which anthropomorphic creatures and particularly morbid hallucinatory visions intersect.
Salvador Dali, The Temptation of Saint Anthony, 1946. Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium.
This biblical epic has inspired many artists and writers: from Gustave Flaubert to Veronese, through Auguste Rodin or Hieronymus Bosch, many have distinguished themselves by transcribing their phantasmagorical delusions through particularly elaborate artworks.
Joos van Craesbeeck, The Temptation of St Anthony, c. 1650. Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, Germany.
Paul Cézanne, The Temptation of Saint Anthony, c. 1877. Musée d’Orsay, Paris.
3. The Foul and Charming Medusa
This legend crosses the ages and interferes in the Pop Culture with an unequalled power. You probably already know it, but a little reminder never hurts!
Arnold Böcklin, Shield with the Head of Medusa, 1897. Musée d’Orsay, Paris.
Medusa is one of the three Gorgons. These strange evil creatures can petrify mortals who look at them. Among her sisters (Euryale and Stheno), Medusa is the only one who's not immortal, so she's the most threatening and, of course, the most famous!
Physically, the appearance of the Gorgons varies according to the authors, but they are generally depicted as very ugly, with golden wings and bronze hands, but above all, their hair is described as covered with a multitude of aggressive snakes.
Alice Pike Barney, Medusa, 1892. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.
Recluse in a cave far from men, Medusa will be killed by the demigod Perseus. Perseus will use a mirrored shield to avoid the monster's direct gaze and will cut off her head with a sword offered by Hermes, the illustrious messenger of the gods. Perseus will then offer Medusa's head to Athena, goddess of war, who will adorn her shield with this macabre offering.
Sebastiano Ricci, Perseus Confronting Phineus with Head of Medusa, c. 1705. Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
Throughout the arts and ages, from the Middle Ages to Modern Art through the Renaissance and Romanticism, this myth captivated many Western painters and sculptors. At first described as aggressive and ugly, her representation will become more humanized over the centuries, until becoming today the archetype of the femme fatale, independent and dangerous.
Caravaggio, Medusa, circa 1597. Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy.
This is one of the most famous representations of the myth today: Caravaggio was fascinated by the myth of Medusa, which became his catharsis. For him, "Every painting is a Medusa head. One can overcome terror by the image of terror. Every painter is Perseus".
Bernini, Marble Sculpture of Medusa, circa 1640. Musei Capitolini, Rome, Italy.
This marble bust made by Bernini in 1640 breaks with the frightful representations of the past. The artist reverses our perception of the myth by presenting a beautiful young woman who is the victim of a deep inner suffering, a meditative anguish, as if she were in the grip of her own demons, fighting against them through a process of introspection.
Vincenzo Gemito, Medusa (sculpture), 1911. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
Bastien Alleaume