title | Jupiter and Semele

artist | Gustave Moreau

style | Symbolism

date | 1894-5

collection | Musée Gustave Moreau, Paris

Artist Gustave Moreau made the following comment about his painting Jupiter and Semele: "In the midst of colossal aerial buildings, with neither foundations nor roof-tops, covered with teeming, quivering vegetation, this sacred flora standing out against the dark blues of the starry vaults and the deserts of the sky, the God so often invoked appears in his still veiled splendour...At the foot of the throne, Death and Sorrow form the tragic basis of Human Life, and not far from them, under the aegis of the eagle of Jupiter, the great Pan, symbol of Earth, bows his sorrowful brow, mourning his slavery and exile, while at his feet is piled the sombre phalanx of the monsters of Erebus and Night..."

More information about this painting is coming soon.