Gods, heroes and metamorphoses · Ancient stories reinvented

Mythological painting transforms gods, heroes, monsters and metamorphoses into stories of desire, power, loss and creation.

Since the Renaissance, Greek and Roman myths have offered painters inexhaustible language. They make it possible to represent the body, the landscape, the movement and the passions while linking the image to a known story. Orpheus embodies the civilizing power of music in Delacroix. The fight of the Centaurs and the Lapiths gives Platzer the opportunity to organize a spectacular melee where order confronts violence. Phaethon driving the chariot of the Sun shows the moment when ambition and mastery become inseparable from danger. Phaethon driving the chariot of the Sun shows the moment when ambition and mastery become inseparable from danger. Phaethon driving the chariot of the Sun shows the moment when ambition and mastery become inseparable from danger. Phaethon driving the chariot of the Sun shows the moment when ambition and mastery become inseparable from danger. Phaethon driving the chariot of the Sun shows the moment when ambition and mastery become inseparable from danger. Botticelli, with Venus and the Three Graces, instead translates mythology into line, dance and symbolic gift. Painting does not just illustrate these stories: she adapts them to the values, spaces and concerns of each era. The "Mythological Paintings" selection notably compares Orpheus teaches the arts of peace - Eugène Delacroix and The Fight of the Centaurs and the Lapiths - Johann Georg Platzer. His reading favors movement.

The myth survives in painting because it gives visible form to the most enduring human forces: desire, courage, pride, loss and transformation.