Abundance, personified by Ceres, goddess of fertility and agriculture, sits in front of a thicket of reeds at the edge of a forest. She has adorned her hair with wheat spikes -her attribute- and bears the horn of plenty under her left arm. Earth sits at her feet, offering her one of her fruits, she is personified by Flora, goddess of the earth and also of spring, which explains the flowers in her
This canvas by a late 17th-century painter is part of a group of four works, all at the Museo del Prado (P191, P3196, P3197 and P3198), that express the idea of the Elements through motives drawn from classical mythology. According to R. López Torrijos (1985), Water is embodied here by Ocean’s sister and wife, Thetis, who was queen of the seas. A crown and scepter underline her royal charac
This is a sketch of the fresco that Corrado Giaquinto painted in the former stairway at the Madrid’s Royal Palace, which is now the Hall of Columns. That fresco, his last work at the Royal Palace, is undoubtedly one of the finest paintings from Giaquinto’s Spanish period.He concluded it in 1762, so the sketch presented here must have been made slightly earlier. At the top is the figure of Apollo,
This painting is listed in the royal inventories as the companion piece to Hunting Party and Fishermen (P2147). It is a panoramic view in which hunters, animals and picturesque buildings are set in a sweeping landscape. However, here the wooded, mountainous scenery evidences the influence of Italianate landscape painting. The figure groupings are designed to steer the viewer`s gaze not to the back
This wooded landscape with the ocean in the background is the setting for a group of maritime allegories. In the foreground, a male figure next to some rapids personifies one of the great rivers that exist in Nature, as was the customary representation during the Classical period. Various elements and animals related to water, such as turtles and seashells, are visible beside him. In the backgroun
El nacimiento de esta diosa aparece en la Teogonía de Hesiodo (188-ss): "(...) Vino el poderoso Urano conduciendo la noche, se echó sobre la tierra ansioso de amor y se extendió por todas partes. El hijo, saliendo de su escondite, logró alcanzarle con la mano izquierda, empuño con la derecha la prodigiosa hoz, enorme y de afilados dientes, y apresuradamente segó los genitales de su padre y luego l