View source for Feast of the Gods (art)

{{Short description|Frequent subject of paintings based on Greco-Roman mythology}}{{distinguish||text=[[Le Festin des Dieux]] by the Dutch painter [[Jan van Bijlert]]}}[[File:Golden Apple of Discord by Jacob Jordaens.jpg|thumb|330px|''The Golden Apple of Discord'' at the wedding of [[Peleus]] and [[Thetis]], [[Jacob Jordaens]], 1633, {{convert|181|x|288|cm|abbr=on}}, oil on canvas]]

The '''Feast of the Gods''' or '''Banquet of the Gods''' as a subject in art showing a group of deities at table has a long history going back into [[Ancient history|antiquity]].  Showing [[Ancient Greek religion|Greco-Roman deities]], it enjoyed a revival in popularity in the [[Italian Renaissance]], and then in the [[Low Countries]] during the 16th century, when it was popular with [[Northern Mannerist]] painters, at least partly as an opportunity to show copious amounts of nudity.<ref>Bull, 342–343; Woolett, 60</ref>

Often the occasion shown was specifically either the wedding of [[Cupid and Psyche]] or that of [[Peleus]] and [[Thetis]], but other works show other occasions, especially the ''Feast of Bacchus'', or a generalized feast. While the wedding of Cupid and Psyche is just the happy ending of Psyche's story, the wedding of Peleus and Thetis is part of the grand narrative of Greek mythology.  The feast was interrupted by [[Eris (mythology)|Eris]], goddess of discord, who threw the golden [[Apple of Discord]] inscribed "for the most beautiful" into the company, provoking the argument that led to the [[Judgement of Paris]], and ultimately to the [[Trojan War]].  Eris is sometimes shown in the air with the apple, or the apple with the diners, and sometimes the feast forms a background scene to a painting of the Judgement, or ''vice versa''.<ref>Bull, 343</ref>  This wedding was also used as a political symbol around the time of the marriage of the Dutch leader [[William the Silent]] to [[Charlotte of Bourbon]] in 1575.<ref>Bull, 343, citing P. Grootkerk's PhD, 1975</ref>

Generally, despite Thetis being a sea-nymph, depictions of her wedding have the same inland setting as other scenes. A depiction by [[Hans Rottenhammer]] (1600, [[Hermitage Museum]]) probably of the wedding of [[Neptune (mythology)|Neptune]] and [[Amphitrite]] is set in a beach-side pavilion, with the sea full of an unruly crowd of marine mythological creatures.  The ''Feast of [[Achelous]]'' is derived from [[Ovid]] in his ''[[Metamorphoses]]'', who describes  how [[Theseus]] is entertained by the river god in a damp grotto, while waiting for the river's raging flood to subside: "He entered the dark building, made of spongy pumice, and rough tuff. The floor was moist with soft moss, and the ceiling banded with freshwater mussel and oyster shells."<ref>[[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' VIII, 547ff</ref>  The subject was painted a number of times, with Rubens producing an early version with [[Jan Brueghel the Elder]],<ref>Woollett, 60-63</ref> and a later picture attributed to his "school", and Hendrick van Balen collaborating with [[Jan Brueghel the Younger]]. All show much smaller and more decorously behaved groups than the wedding parties.
[[File:Giovanni - Noces de Thétis et Pelée, Louvre RF 1346.jpg|thumb|650px|''[[Cassone]]'' panel by [[Bartolomeo di Giovanni]], 1490s, with the story of [[Priapus]] and [[Lotis (mythology)|Lotis]] at bottom right corner]]

==Italian Renaissance== 
[[File:Giovanni Bellini and Titian - The Feast of the Gods - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''[[The Feast of the Gods]]'', [[Giovanni Bellini]] and Titian (1514–1529), also with [[Priapus]] and [[Lotis (mythology)|Lotis]], also bottom right]]

One of the earliest depictions is a ''[[cassone]]'' panel  by [[Bartolomeo di Giovanni]] from the 1490s (Louvre, ''illustrated''); this is paired with a panel of the ''Procession of Thetis'', another common way of depicting a wedding; artists were unsure what form an actual Olympian wedding ceremony might have taken.  A more sophisticated but similar depiction of a rustic picnic eaten on the ground, is ''[[The Feast of the Gods]]'' by [[Giovanni Bellini]] (1514), later changed by [[Titian]] (to 1529), a large and important painting; both show the story of [[Priapus]] and [[Lotis (mythology)|Lotis]].<ref name="Bull">Bull, 342</ref>

Two major [[fresco]]s from the end of the [[High Renaissance]] showed the wedding banquet of Cupid and Psyche: [[Raphael]]'s central panel in the "[[Loggia]] of Psyche" at the [[Villa Farnesina]] in Rome, and [[Giulio Romano]]'s wall panel in the [[Palazzo Te]] in [[Mantua]].  Both of these became very well-known through [[old master print|print versions]], often freely adapting the compositions, and inspired a wide range of versions in drawings and media of the decorative arts such as [[Maiolica|majolica]], painted [[Limoges enamel]] and [[pastiglia]].  Giulio's version seems to show the preparations rather than the feast itself, and only a few of the invited gods have so far arrived. But it is highly atmospheric and its dispersal of the figures across a large setting was to recur in many later depictions.<ref name="Bull" />  Both frescos showed a good proportion of the participants nude, or almost so, reflecting the practice of recent decades in mythological paintings. The ''[[Pastoral Concert|Fête champêtre]]'' of [[Titian]] (or [[Giorgione]]) may represent a mythological subject, if not a feast then at least a picnic of the gods.

Around the mid-century [[Taddeo Zuccari]] did the ''Wedding of Bacchus and Ariadne'' in fresco in the [[Villa Giulia]], Rome,<ref>Vlieghe, 105</ref> and in northern Europe [[Francesco Primaticcio]] painted that of Peleus and Thetis in a mythological series in the ballroom of the [[Palace of Fontainebleau]].<ref>[http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/340554 Drawing of ''Apple of Discord Thrown by Eris at the Marriage of Peleus and Thetis'']: Study for Fresco in the Hall of Henri II at Fountainebleau, Francesco Primaticcio, [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]]</ref> [[Frans Floris]] painted a monumental feast in oil (c. 1550, [[Antwerp]]),<ref>Woolett, 60</ref> nearly two metres across, as well as a ''Feast of the Seagods'' (1561, [[Stockholm]]).

<gallery  heights="190px" mode=packed>
File:Farnesina Loggia di Psiche. 05.jpg|[[Raphael]]'s panel in the [[Loggia]] of Psyche at the [[Villa Farnesina]], Cupid and Psyche
File:Banquet of Amor and Psyche by Giulio Romano.jpg|[[Giulio Romano]], [[Palazzo Te]], [[Mantua]], ''Cupid and Psyche''
File:Frans Floris - Banquet of the Gods - WGA7943.jpg|[[Frans Floris]], c. 1550, no specific occasion
</gallery>

==Northern Mannerism==
[[File:Hendrik de Clerck - The Nuptials of Thetis and Peleus - WGA5022.jpg|thumb|[[Hendrik de Clerck]], 1606–1609, on copper, {{convert|54|x|76|cm|abbr=on}}, Thetis and Peleus, with Eris airborne at top right]]
[[File:Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem - The Wedding of Peleus and Thetis - WGA05242.jpg|thumb|[[Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem]], on canvas, 1593, {{convert|246|x|419|cm|abbr=on}}, Peleus and Thetis, with the Judgement of Paris on the hill behind, and Mercury and the goddesses inspecting the golden apple at right]]
[[File:Joachim Wtewael - The Judgment of Paris (1615).jpg|thumb|''The Judgment of Paris'' by [[Joachim Wtewael]] (1615), wood, {{convert|60|x|93|cm|abbr=on}}, with the wedding in the background, including Eris overhead with the golden apple]]

The revival of interest in the subject some decades later in [[Northern Mannerism]] seems to spring from a large [[engraving]] of 1587 by [[Hendrik Goltzius]] in [[Haarlem]] of a drawing by [[Bartholomeus Spranger]] (now [[Rijksmuseum]]) that [[Karel van Mander]] had brought back from [[Prague]], where Spranger was court painter to [[Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor|Rudolf II]].  ''The Feast of the Gods at the Marriage of Cupid and Psyche'' was so large, at 16 7/8 × 33 5/8 in. (43 × 85.4&nbsp;cm), that it was printed from three different plates. Over 80 figures are shown, placed up in the clouds over a [[world landscape]] that can be glimpsed below.  The composition borrows from both Raphael and Giulio Romano's versions.<ref>[http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/2000.113 The engraving at the Metropolitan Museum of Art]; [https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1477730&partId=1&searchText=1852,1211.63&page=1 at the British Museum, in sections]; Bull, 342–343</ref>

Over the next thirty years or so a number of Netherlandish artists painted the subject, usually in small [[cabinet painting]]s, often on copper, although ''The Wedding of Peleus and Thetis'' by [[Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem]] was enormous at over four metres wide, a commission in 1593 from the [[Stadtholder]] [[Maurice, Prince of Orange]] for his palace, and [[Jacob Jordaens]]' ''The Golden Apple of Discord'' (1633, from an [[oil sketch]] by [[Rubens]]) is also a monumental treatment.  Painters who returned to the subject several times include in particular [[Hendrick van Balen]], who was known above all for these subjects, and also [[Joachim Wtewael]], Cornelis van Haarlem, [[Cornelis van Poelenburch]], and [[Abraham Bloemaert]].<ref>Bull, 342–343; Slive, 13–14; Vlieghe, 105–106</ref>

Over the same period these same painters, later followed by Rubens, produced many depictions of ''[[Sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus]]'' ("Without Ceres and Bacchus, Venus freezes", meaning that love needs food and wine to thrive), a proverb derived from the [[emblem book]]s, which showed just [[Ceres (mythology)|Ceres]], [[Bacchus]], [[Venus (mythology)|Venus]] and [[Cupid]] picnicking on the ground in most early versions, or seated at a table in some later ones.<ref>Bull, 218–219</ref>  It has been suggested that the concentration of images by the [[Haarlem Mannerists]] reflects the patronage of the powerful brewers of [[Haarlem]].<ref>Santos, especially p. 21 onwards</ref>

[[File:Bijlert - Le Festin des dieux - 09-530998.jpg|thumb|{{lang|fr|[[Le Festin des Dieux]]}} by [[Jan van Bijlert]] (the left-hand end is lost)]]

{{lang|fr|[[Le Festin des Dieux]]}} was painted by [[Jan van Bijlert]] between 1635 and 1640.

==Context==
Both the weddings of Cupid and Psyche and that of Peleus and Thetis were common subjects in antiquity, going back to Greek [[black-figure vase painting]].  The latter was perhaps shown in the Roman [[cameo glass]] [[Portland Vase]].  However such depictions rarely show the wedding feast, preferring the ceremony or processions to it.

The earlier paintings may owe something to entertainments ''alla antica'' such as those of the Compagnia della Cassuola ("Company of the Shovel") mentioned by [[Giorgio Vasari|Vasari]], where a social confraternity in [[Florence]] including artists such as [[Giovanni Francesco Rustici]] and [[Andrea del Sarto]] held elaborate dinners which might include the attendees dressing as classical gods and re-enacting episodes from mythology.<ref>Freedman, 33</ref>  Raphael and Giulio's frescos decorated spaces used for lavish entertaining that might bear comparison with Olympian hospitality; the previous century [[Marsilio Ficino]] had written a thank-you letter to [[Lorenzo de' Medici]] that made just that comparison.<ref name="Bull" />

The later paintings can also be seen in the context of the wider interest in "company scenes" of social occasions in Netherlandish art at the start of the 17th century, expressed in the new genre subject of the [[merry company]], and its "gallant" and "elegant" variations,<ref>Liedke, 13–15</ref> as well as the continuation of [[Pieter Bruegel the Elder]]'s scenes of peasant life by his son [[Jan Brueghel the Elder|Jan]] and others.  The feasts formed a division of the class of small-scale mythological paintings, in which the interest of the figures is very often shared with landscape or [[still life]] elements.<ref>Vlieghe, 105–106, and ''passim'' for the rest of chapter 6</ref>  Both of these figure in many feasts, but the emphasis is on a generous range of nude figures, displaying a variety of complicated poses that display the artist's virtuosity.<ref>Woollett, 60</ref>

Small groups of non-divine revellers in similar [[Arcadia (utopia)|arcadian]] landscape settings are called [[bacchanal]]s, and are even more common in art.  Other subjects that were popular at the same period showed the entertainment of classical gods by humans, in the story of [[Baucis and Philemon]] and other tales. ''[[The Triumph of Bacchus]]'' (''Los borrachos'', 1628) by [[Diego Velázquez]], in the [[Museo del Prado]], is a famous example of the subject of Bacchus drinking with humans.

==Later works==
The [[New Palace (Potsdam)|New Palace at Potsdam]] in [[Berlin]] has a ceiling painting in the Marmorsaal ("Marble Hall") depicting the ''Feast of the Gods on Olympus'' (1769) by the [[Neoclassicism|Neoclassical painter]] [[Amédée van Loo]]. [[Romanticism|Romantic Nationalism]] extended the range of gods that might be depicted to the [[Norse gods]].  In 1863 the [[Peredvizhniki]] ("Wanderers") group of progressive artists was founded after several left the [[Imperial Academy of Arts]] in [[Saint Petersburg]] in disgust after the subject set for the annual Gold Medal contest (the Russian equivalent of the ''[[Prix de Rome]]'') was "The Feast of [[Odin]] in [[Valhalla]]", which they thought both un-Russian and of no social relevance.<ref>"Wanderers" in ''The Oxford Dictionary of Art'', Ed. Ian Chilvers, 2004, Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|0198604769}}, 9780198604761, [https://books.google.com/books?id=WYaRX58a0_IC&pg=PA747 google books]</ref>  Later paintings, particularly in England, sometimes depicted [[fairy]] scenes of a somewhat similar types, such as ''[[The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania]]'' (1849) and its matching ''Reconciliation'', by Sir [[Joseph Noel Paton]].

==Notes== 
{{Reflist|30em}}

==References==
{{commons category|The Feast of the Gods}}
*Bull, Malcolm, ''The Mirror of the Gods, How Renaissance Artists Rediscovered the Pagan Gods'', Oxford UP, 2005, {{ISBN|0141912626}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=aOGwFFb3PIcC&pg=PT570 google books]
*Freedman, Luba, ''Classical Myths in Italian Renaissance Painting'', 2011, Cambridge University Press, {{ISBN|1107001196}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=uupLN8cmkjwC&pg=PA33 google books]
*Liedtke, Walter A., "Frans Hals: Style and Substance", ''Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art'', 2011, {{ISBN|1588394247}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=eSz5tUIQcHsC&pg=PA14 google books]
*[[Seymour Slive|Slive, Seymour]], ''Dutch Painting, 1600–1800'', Yale UP, 1995,{{ISBN|0300074514}}
* Santos, R. de Mambro, "The Beer of Bacchus. Visual Strategies and Moral Values in Hendrick Goltzius' Representations of Sine Cerere et Libero Friget Venus", in ''Emblemi in Olanda e Italia tra XVI e XVII secolo'', ed. E. Canone and L. Spruit, 2012, Olschki Editore, Florence, [https://www.academia.edu/5029828/_The_Beer_of_Bacchus._Visual_Strategies_and_Moral_Values_in_Hendrick_Goltzius_Representations_of_Sine_Cerere_et_Libero_Friget_Venus_in_Emblemi_in_Olanda_e_Italia_tra_XVI_e_XVII_secolo_ed._E._Canone_and_L._Spruit_Firenze_Olschki_Editore_2012_ web text on academia.edu]
*Vlieghe, H. (1998), ''Flemish art and architecture, 1585–1700'', Yale University Press Pelican history of art. New Haven: Yale University Press. {{ISBN|0300070381}}
*Woolett, Anne T., van Suchtelen, Ariane, eds, ''Rubens & Brueghel: A Working Friendship'', 2006, Getty Publications, {{ISBN|0892368489}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=c1cGWlxdP64C&pg=PA60 google books]

{{Cupid and Psyche}}

[[Category:Iconography]]
[[Category:Dutch painting]]
[[Category:Flemish art]]
[[Category:Visual motifs]]
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