Girodet's Endymion and Barthes' S/Z
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Endymion
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| About the Artist |
| Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson (also referred to as Roussy, Girodet-Trioson, or Girodet) was born in France at Montargis on January 5, 1767. In 1789, at the age of 22, he began his studies with Jacques-Louis David. His Endymion (or Le Sommeil d’Endymion) indicates a departure from his master's work. According to some, his works of the early nineteenth century combined the worst of neo-classicism with the worst of romanticism. His notorious Danae was a portrait of an actress with a caricature of her husband as a turkey sporting peacock feathers. His imagination was stirred by literature; his Fingal, painted for Napoleon in 1802, was inspired by the Ancient Poetry of Ossian (forged, in fact, by the contemporary Scottish poet James McPherson). His Scène de Déluge and Révolte de Caire have a powerful sense of drama and violence. He developed the habit of only painting at night. After receiving a sizeable inheritance in 1812, he gradually abandoned painting for poetry, though his verse - much of it on aesthetic theory - was apparently ghastly, even unreadable. He died December 9, 1824.
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| About the Work |
| Endymion was painted in 1791; it is 198 x 261cm and is now in the Louvre. The subject is a Roman myth. Endymion was a grandson of Jupiter, renowned for his beauty. As a favor, Jupiter placed him in eternal sleep so that he would not suffer old age or death. The goddess Diana, taken by his beauty, would visit him at night, and these visits resulted in fifty daughters and one son. Girodet does not directly represent Diana. A naked youth, perhaps Zephyr, draws back a branch that allows the moon to bath Endymion with her gentle light.
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Related Books and References |
Balzac, Honoré de, Sarrasine. Hardpress.net. 2006.
Barthes, Roland, S/Z. Trans. Richard Miller. New York: Farrar, Strauss, Giroux. 1974.
Scan from the Web Gallery of Art: www.wga.hu
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Girodet's Endymion and Barthes S/Z
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