Thursday, January 2, 2020

Atlas (Defeated Titan) in European Art (16th-18th Centuries)

Philip van Gunst after Giulio Romano
Battle of the Titans
before 1732
etching
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Alessandro Algardi
Defeated Titan
early 1650s
terracotta statuette
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Anonymous Flemish Artist after Hans Speckaert
Fall of the Titans
late 18th century
drawing
British Museum

Pietro Santi Bartoli
Allegorical Scene of Life and Death - with Atlas, Hercules and Prometheus
(after ancient relief)
ca. 1685
etching and engraving
Philadelphia Museum of Art

workshop of Severo da Ravenna
Inkwell in the form of Atlas holding a Globe
(missing globe-shaped oil lamp)
ca. 1525
copper alloy
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

ATLAS – The son of the Titan Iapetus and Clymene, brother of MenÅ“tius, Prometheus, and Epimetheus.  In Homer he is called "the thinker of mischief" who knows the depths of the whole sea, and has under his care the pillars which hold heaven and earth asunder.  In Hesiod he stands at the western end of the earth, near where the Hesperides dwell, holding the broad heaven on his head and unwearied hands.  To this condition he is forced by Zeus, according to a later version as a punishment for the part which he took in the battle with the Titans.  . . .  In works of art he is represented as carrying the heavens, or (after the earth was discovered to be spherical) the terrestrial globe.

– Oskar Seyffert, Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Religion, Literature, and Art (1882)

Anonymous Flemish Weavers
Hercules shouldering the Heavens for the Giant Atlas 
ca. 1540-50
wool and silk tapestry
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Anonymous Dutch Artist
after Cornelis Bos
Sculpture of Atlas
ca. 1535-40
engraving
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Giulio Bonasone
Atlas
ca. 1545-55
engraving
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Baldassare Peruzzi
Crouching Figure of Atlas
1536
drawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Anonymous Italian Artist
Atlas
early 17th century
gilt bronze statuette
National Trust, Berrington Hall, Herefordshire

Raymond Lafage
Atlas
before 1684
drawing
Victoria & Albert Museum

Peter Paul Rubens
Atlas supporting the Heavens
ca. 1635-40
oil on panel (sketch)
Courtauld Gallery, London

Guercino
Atlas
1646
drawing
Royal Collection, Great Britain

Guercino
Atlas
1646
oil on canvas
Museo Bardini, Florence