Gustav Klimt
Danae

"Danae"

Gustav Klimt

oil on canvas, 77 cm x 83 cm

Vienna, private collection

Danae, daughter of King Acrisius of Argos and his spouse Eurydice, was locked away by her father in a bronze tower, following a prophecy in which the oracle foretold the king's death at the hands of his grandson. Zeus, captivated and in love with the beautiful maiden, managed to reach her and, in the form of a golden shower, contributed to the conception of Perseus.

The myth of Danae has been used over the centuries to bypass ecclesiastical censorship and depict seduction and sensuality. In the Middle Ages, the mythological episode became a symbol of the miraculous conception of a virgin by a divine being.

In his interpretation of the myth, Klimt chooses to represent the fruitful encounter as a dream episode, in an allusive but not obscene manner, with a realism of the nude far from the idealization of the multi-century artistic tradition, which offends and scandalizes bourgeois propriety.

The Austrian artist abandons the usual vertical structure, preferring an oval composition in which Danae becomes a maiden surrendered to sleep. Shelled in a confined space, at the mercy of her own sexual instincts, Klimt's Danae is neither aware nor participatory in what is happening. It is, therefore, an unconscious and unaware eroticism, in some ways innocent, seen in the reclined head, the slightly open mouth, the semi-open and tense hand, in the fetal position. In the act of fertilization, the male presence is seen in the golden cascade falling into the woman's womb, surrounded by a veil that protects but does not cover, and by a cascade of red hair that accentuates the intoxication of sexual fulfillment.

A true masterpiece, without a doubt.