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Parnas

Andrea Mantegna • Painting, 1497, 160×192 cm
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About the artwork
Art form: Painting
Subject and objects: Mythological scene, Allegorical scene
Style of art: Renaissance
Technique: Oil
Materials: Canvas
Date of creation: 1497
Size: 160×192 cm
Artwork in selections: 3 selections

Description of the artwork «Parnas»

The painting "Parnassus," written in 1497 by order of Isabella d Este to his Studio. (Isabella d Este, the wife of the Margrave of Mantua, connoisseur of art and patron of famous artists, one of the most famous women of the Italian Renaissance, nicknamed "diva Renaissance").

In the center of the canvas nine muses singing and dancing to the accompaniment of a lyre, where the left in the picture, plays the Apollo. On top of composition the paintings are Mars and Venus and Cupid, who shot an arrow into her husband's Venus of Vulcan to warn him about his wife's infidelity.

Complex, allegorical content of the painting causes the viewer to remember the complex intricacies of Greek mythology, specifically the secret Union of Aphrodite with Ares. Love and war, uniting together, gave rise to Fear and Horror, Eros and Harmony. Furious was the husband of Aphrodite, Hephaestus, but could not do anything. Lovers helped the eternal prankster Olympus Hermes, and Apollo put his hand to the adultery, giving Ares and Aphrodite refuge on mount Parnassus.

All participants in this ambiguous scene we see in the picture. Suspended Hermes holds a winged Pegasus, ready to begin a song with the muses, attracted by the games of Apollo the cithara. The distance the enraged figure of Hephaistos has left his work in the forge. The composition is crowned with perpetrating a scandal: sweet and sensual Aphrodite and courageous, severe Ares.

Work is overloaded with symbols and allegories, which are still not solved. The color work is rich and diverse. Color language patterns are no less interesting. And the image of the bed next to the main characters, and all is on the verge of decency to the 15th century.


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