Rather than go into great detail, let me just point the gentle reader at an excellent essay on this image at http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/essay/j-w-waterhouses-ulysses-and-the-sirens-breaking-tradition-and-revealing-fears-2/ on the Web.
Apparently the great furor back in the day was that horrors! Horrors! The artist was not slavishly faithful to Homer’s text! The biggie is that Waterhouse depicted the Sirens, not as lovely human women as was customary, but actually as Harpies—the half-human, half-avian monsters who pursue those who commit great evil, such as murder of a family member, and feed on the flesh of the offender. If you do a quick Google image search on Harpies and then on Sirens, you’ll immediately see which way Waterhouse went with his girls.
So why did he do that? Apparently he wasn’t interested in confronting Odysseus with lovely, seductive, pleasing women. He want to show him struggling with crazy lust for terrifying, brutal, almost inhuman creatures—only their faces are those of women; the bodies are those of gigantic birds of prey.
Of course, there’s a plot hole here; if these creatures have the habits of Harpies as well as their appearance, then Odysseus, bound to the mast and helpless, is a lunch, not a lover.
The other interesting classical connection Waterhouse lays into his image is to turn Odysseus, a stereotype of the male hero, into Andromeda, a woman bound and helpless, tied up as a treat for monsters.
With all that going on, it’s no wonder that Waterhouse was heavily attacked in the press of the day. You can read about that part of it in the article cited above.
Oh, a small but interesting point that comes out of the Google searches on sirens: while the traditional view is of beautiful women, and Waterhouse went with Harpies, lots of modern treatments show them as mermaids. Mythology never stops changing and developing.
has info and links that point to info about this huge painting (best viewed by Google Chrome – can automatically translate pages if necessary). So far, 9 works by this artist have appeared here.
has info about this artist, as well as a short description of this painting, next to its image, later in the page.
Again, a larger strip image is shown by clicking the image in Mr. Melcher’s MASTERPIECE #1711 (May 17, 2017) blog entry, accessible by the Check out the blog! box after the last comment; so, I won’t point to it here.
BE THIS GUY almost 7 years ago
“Thank you, umm, whatever. We’ll be contacting your agent if we’re interested.”
rugeirn almost 7 years ago
Rather than go into great detail, let me just point the gentle reader at an excellent essay on this image at http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/essay/j-w-waterhouses-ulysses-and-the-sirens-breaking-tradition-and-revealing-fears-2/ on the Web.
Apparently the great furor back in the day was that horrors! Horrors! The artist was not slavishly faithful to Homer’s text! The biggie is that Waterhouse depicted the Sirens, not as lovely human women as was customary, but actually as Harpies—the half-human, half-avian monsters who pursue those who commit great evil, such as murder of a family member, and feed on the flesh of the offender. If you do a quick Google image search on Harpies and then on Sirens, you’ll immediately see which way Waterhouse went with his girls.
So why did he do that? Apparently he wasn’t interested in confronting Odysseus with lovely, seductive, pleasing women. He want to show him struggling with crazy lust for terrifying, brutal, almost inhuman creatures—only their faces are those of women; the bodies are those of gigantic birds of prey.
Of course, there’s a plot hole here; if these creatures have the habits of Harpies as well as their appearance, then Odysseus, bound to the mast and helpless, is a lunch, not a lover.
The other interesting classical connection Waterhouse lays into his image is to turn Odysseus, a stereotype of the male hero, into Andromeda, a woman bound and helpless, tied up as a treat for monsters.
With all that going on, it’s no wonder that Waterhouse was heavily attacked in the press of the day. You can read about that part of it in the article cited above.
Thus endeth the Art History Moment for today.
rugeirn almost 7 years ago
Oh, a small but interesting point that comes out of the Google searches on sirens: while the traditional view is of beautiful women, and Waterhouse went with Harpies, lots of modern treatments show them as mermaids. Mythology never stops changing and developing.
J Short almost 7 years ago
The last time Odysseus bought an economy ticket.
maltmash3r almost 7 years ago
Miriam, don’t look!
Linguist almost 7 years ago
Odysseus, begins to regret his decision to travel Economy Class…
Honorable Mention In The Banjo Toss Premium Member almost 7 years ago
“We’re now going to sing you featured selections from the hit musical “Annie.”
“No, no, plug my ears, too!”
UpaCoCoCreek Premium Member almost 7 years ago
I didn’t know United started out in the cruise business!
mabrndt Premium Member almost 7 years ago
3 URLs (copy each as one line):
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WATERHOUSE_-_Ulises_y_las_Sirenas_(National_Gallery_of_Victoria,_Melbourne,_1891._%C3%93leo_sobre_lienzo,_100.6_x_202_cm).jpg
has info and links that point to info about this huge painting (best viewed by Google Chrome – can automatically translate pages if necessary). So far, 9 works by this artist have appeared here.
http://www.gocomics.com/that-is-priceless/2016/12/30?comments=visible
has the prior work (which Mr. Melcher had designated a Classic).
http://www.artrenewal.org/pages/artist.php?artistid=79
has info about this artist, as well as a short description of this painting, next to its image, later in the page.
Again, a larger strip image is shown by clicking the image in Mr. Melcher’s MASTERPIECE #1711 (May 17, 2017) blog entry, accessible by the Check out the blog! box after the last comment; so, I won’t point to it here.
Masterskrain Premium Member almost 7 years ago
They COULD just Re-Accommodate him to steerage…
Christine Morgan Premium Member almost 7 years ago
United… “The Early Years”