Stories behind the Works of Art: Monet and the Rouen Cathedral. The siren with a fish tail, a representation from other mythologies, started to prevail as from the Middle Age. Many times they were associated to funerary matters -there is no agreement about the reasons-but they seemed to be related to the world of the dead. Before Homer’s work -the first appearance of the Sirens in literature- we can see sirens with a bird body represented in ceramic vases, urns, figurines. Greek tradition represented them that way. Why do the sirens of Waterhouse have a bird body? Ulysses and his sailors get past the island of the sirens without crashing and the odyssey continues. This way he is able to listen to the deadly singing without reacting when under the spell. Thus, as it is well known, he instructs the sailors to fill their ears with wax and have him tied to the mast. Ulysses has to avoid the situation, but his curiosity tempts him to know that irresistible singing. A perverse seduction that leads to death.Īn interesting detail: the mythical island would be in the Mediterranean, opposite the Sorrento, which would coincide with the Capri Island. With their singing they attract sailors in an irresistible and hypnotic way, and the mariners end by crashing their ships against the rocks of the island. The sirens are those mythological creatures -that we know as half fish, half woman- who have a very seductive voice. They have to go around the island of the Sirens. He spends a year with his crew in the island of the enchantress Circe, and finally she tells him how to return to Ithaca. ![]() That is why a series of adventures or of events full of adversities is called an odyssey. In the Odyssey -named after its protagonist, Odysseus, the Greek name which in English is Ulysses- Homer tells the adventures Ulysses goes through to return to his kingdom, Ithaca, after the war of Troy. What maybe curious in the work of Waterhouse is that the sirens are not represented as we are used to seeing them. The story of Ulysses and the singing of the Sirens is still a very popular myth and may be it is not necessary to tell it again. ![]() How is 3 minutos de arte supported?ĭid you know that Sirens were not always seen as half woman and half fish? 73.We could make this publication thanks to small donations. Text by Dr Ted Gott from 19th century painting and sculpture in the international collections of the National Gallery of Victoria, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2003, p. ![]() The vase showed the sirens as winged and clawed birds with human faces, a concept that was taken up by Waterhouse and that came as a surprise to Victorian audiences, who were more used to seeing these mythic creatures portrayed as comely mermaid-like nymphs. To achieve authenticity in his depiction, Waterhouse turned to a painted representation of the Homeric story on an ancient Greek vase at the British Museum in London. Homer did not, however, provide a physical description of the sirens’ appearance. Ulysses, warned by Circe, stopped the ears of his companions and ordered himself to be bound to the mast, and so successfully passed the fatal coast. The Sirens, who with their melodious voices lured all navigators to destruction … were, according to classical tradition, creatures having the body of a bird with the head of a beautiful woman … They were informed by the oracle that as soon as any passed by without heeding their songs they should perish. The 1891 Royal Academy exhibition catalogue summarized the Homeric narrative: This dramatic painting illustrates an episode from the journeys of the Greek hero Odysseus, as told in the ancient Greek poet Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey. ![]() Spielmann, writing for the Magazine of Art, declared it:Ī very startling triumph … a very carnival of colour, mosaicked and balanced with a skill more consummate than even the talented artist was credited with … The quality of the painting is … a considerable advance upon all his antecedent work.Īt the time of Sir Hubert von Herkomer’s purchase of this picture for the National Gallery of Victoria, in June 1891, the Ulysses was only the second work by John William Waterhouse – a painter renowned for his depictions of Greek and Roman subjects – to be acquired for a public gallery. When Ulysses and the Sirens was first exhibited, at London’s Royal Academy in 1891, the painting was praised by most art critics of the day.
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