Artwork Page for Danaë

Details / Information for Danaë

Danaë

c. 1623

Orazio Gentileschi

(Italian, 1563–1639)
Culture
Italy, 17th century
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
Framed: 202.5 x 270 x 9 cm (79 3/4 x 106 5/16 x 3 9/16 in.); Unframed: 162 x 228.5 cm (63 3/4 x 89 15/16 in.)
Credit Line
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 1971.101
Public Domain
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Location
217 Italian Baroque
Print
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Did You Know?

The gauzy scarf draped over Danaë was a studio prop present in many of Orazio's paintings.

Description

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.
A horizontally oriented oil painting depicts a nude woman with a light skin tone reclined on a lavish bed. She has a gauzy scarf draped across her lap and is reaching up with one arm at gold coins falling from above. A childlike angel nearby lifts up the dark curtain behind the bed.

Danaë

c. 1623

Orazio Gentileschi

(Italian, 1563–1639)
Italy, 17th century

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