| Artist | |
|---|---|
| Culture | Austrian |
| Date | 1821 |
| Object type | painting |
| Medium, technique | Viennese porcelain |
| Dimensions | 30 x 40 cm |
| Inventory number | 92.7.B |
| Collection | Department of Art after 1800 |
| On view | This artwork is not on display |
Unlike the other romantic adventures of Zeus, who metamorphoses into many different guises, in the story told in Book XIV of Homer’s Iliad, the seducer is not the king of the gods, but his wife Hera. Aided by Aphrodite and by Hypnos, the god of sleep, Hera succeeds in tempting her husband to make love with her on Mount Ida, where he then falls into a deep slumber, preventing him from intervening as she helps the Greeks to victory over the Trojan forces. One treatment of this theme is the 1775 painting by Andries Cornelis Lens (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna), a hugely succesful artist in his own time. As a devotee of classicism he was influenced by ancient sculpture and by the art of Raphael. His work was reproduced in porcelain paintings by two artists of the Vienna Porcelain Manufactory: Johann Weichselbaum in 1808, and – shown here – Johann Claudius in 1821.
This record is subject to revision due to ongoing research.
