Cleveland Museum of Art

Danaë

Orazio Gentileschi

Date

c. 1623

Medium

oil on canvas

Culture

Italy, 17th century

Department

European Painting and Sculpture

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Danaë’s father feared a prophecy that his grandson would kill him, so he imprisoned his daughter to protect her from suitors. Yet Jupiter, king of the gods, fell in love with Danaë, and he came to her in the form of gold streaming from the sky. Gentileschi adopted Caravaggio’s method of painting directly from models, pulled to the front of the picture plane, which gives the painting a startling, tangible quality. However, the graceful way he handled paint and human gestures lends the work a poetic quality unique to the artist. The gauzy scarf draped over Danaë was a studio prop present in many of Orazio's paintings.

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