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TITLE:
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Jupiter and Callisto
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CATEGORY:
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Paintings
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MATERIALS:
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Oil on canvas
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SIZE:
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h: 46 x w: 55.5 cm / h: 18.1 x w: 21.9 in
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REGION:
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French
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STYLE:
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Old Masters
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PRICE*:
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Contact Gallery for Price
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DESCRIPTION:
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Ovid tells the story of Callisto’s, the beautiful daughter of Lycoan, rape by Jupiter in the guise of Diana. An attendant of the goddess, Callisto, Ovid explains was tricked by Jupiter, abandoned by Diana, and punished by wrathful Hera.
Jupiter fell passionately in love with the lovely Callisto seeing her hunt one day with Diana and the other nymphs, Callisto’s "…beauty/ impossible to behold and not to have" (Ovid II.413 - 414). Jupiter disguised himself as Diana and greeted Callisto. Callisto was overjoyed to see her friend Diana. Jupiter, disguised as Diana "..kissed her, but not with the kiss of a goddess, nor yet the kiss/ one woman gives another" (Ovid II.437 - 438). Callisto realizing she was being tricked, tried to get away, but Zeus overpowered her. As a result of the rape, Callisto bore Arcas. Having learned of Zeus' affair, Hera, in a jealous rage, turned Callisto into a bear. "...Arcas, meanwhile grew up, unaware of his mother's / story , in time went into the woods, a young man learning / to hunt, and encountered his mother, who stared at him/ in recognition and horror" (Ovid II.489 -492). Just as Arcas was about to shoot the bear, Zeus carried Arcas and Callisto into the sky and made them stars. This act of Zeus enraged Hera, and she went to Tethys and Ocean to ask them not to let the two constellations enter their part of the world. "Other stars rise and set, / and appear to dip in the sea. But turn that whore away! / Don't let those arrivistes come near to pollute your waters" (Ovid II.524 -526). Tethys and Ocean agreed to Hera's request.
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PROVENANCE:
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Probably Vente Dulac, Paris, 30 November 1778, lot 282 (as smaller dimensions).
Anonymous sale, Paris, 15 December 1873, lot 9.
Collection of Monsieur and Madame Fernand Halphen, by descent, Collection of Jacques and Henriette Schumann.
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LITERATURE:
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P. de Nolhac, J.H. Fragonard 1732-1806, Paris, 1906, pp. 10 and 162. G. Wildenstein, Deux tableaux de Fragonard au Musée d'Angers, Beaux-Arts, 1923, pp 120-122, no. 8.
G. Wildenstein, The Paintings of Fragonard, London, 1960 p. 203, no. 49, fig. 33.
J Wihlelm, Fragonard, unpublished thesis, 1960, p. 49.
D Wildenstein and G. Mandel, l'Opera completa di Fragonard, Milan, 1972, no. 56.
J.-P. Cuzin, Fragonard : Life and Work, New York, 1988, p. 264, no. 26.
P. Rosenberg, Tout l'Oeuvre peint de Fragonard, Paris, 1989, no. 12.
C. Bailey, Loves of the Gods, Mythological painting from Watteau to David, Paris, Philadelphia, Fort Worth, 1992, p. 375.
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