![Sandro Botticelli - The Calumny (after Apelles) [~1496] | by petrus.agricola](http://live.staticflickr.com/1965/44376870455_72b8c0d13c.jpg)
Sandro Botticelli - The Calumny (after Apelles) [~1496]
Sandro Botticelli -
The Calumny of Apelles [~1496]
La Calunnia di Apelle
Florence, Firenze, Galleria degli Uffizi
wikipedia
Botticelli made this painting on the description of a painting by Apelles, a Greek painter of the Hellenistic Period. Apelles' works have not survived, but Lucian recorded details of one in his >On Calumny<.
On the far right sits king Midas as judge with large donkey ears, extending his hand to Calumny (Slander) while she is still at some distance from him. Near him, on either side, stand two women — Ignorance and Suspicion.
Slander is approaching king Midas in his judgement seat; she is a woman beautiful beyond measure, but full of malignant passion and excitement, evincing as she does fury and wrath by carrying in her left hand a blazing torch and with the other dragging by the hair a young man (Innocence) who stretches out his hands to heaven and calls the gods to witness his innocence. She is conducted by a pale ugly man who has piercing eye and looks as if he had wasted away in long illness; he represents envy. There are two women in attendance to Slander, one is Fraud and the other Conspiracy or Treachery.
They are followed by a woman dressed in deep mourning, with black clothes all in tatters — she is Repentance. At all events, she is turning back with tears in her eyes and casting a stealthy glance, full of shame, at (naked) Truth, who is slowly approaching.
Source:
Sandro Botticelli - The Calumny (after Apelles) [~1496]
Sandro Botticelli -
The Calumny of Apelles [~1496]
La Calunnia di Apelle
Florence, Firenze, Galleria degli Uffizi
wikipedia
Botticelli made this painting on the description of a painting by Apelles, a Greek painter of the Hellenistic Period. Apelles' works have not survived, but Lucian recorded details of one in his >On Calumny<.
On the far right sits king Midas as judge with large donkey ears, extending his hand to Calumny (Slander) while she is still at some distance from him. Near him, on either side, stand two women — Ignorance and Suspicion.
Slander is approaching king Midas in his judgement seat; she is a woman beautiful beyond measure, but full of malignant passion and excitement, evincing as she does fury and wrath by carrying in her left hand a blazing torch and with the other dragging by the hair a young man (Innocence) who stretches out his hands to heaven and calls the gods to witness his innocence. She is conducted by a pale ugly man who has piercing eye and looks as if he had wasted away in long illness; he represents envy. There are two women in attendance to Slander, one is Fraud and the other Conspiracy or Treachery.
They are followed by a woman dressed in deep mourning, with black clothes all in tatters — she is Repentance. At all events, she is turning back with tears in her eyes and casting a stealthy glance, full of shame, at (naked) Truth, who is slowly approaching.
Source: