Danae 1643

Rembrandt van Rijn painted this large canvas of Danae, the mother of Perseus from Greek mythology, sometime in the mid-17th century. This artwork is about power, desire and wealth. The story goes that Danae was locked away by her father, King Acrisius, after a prophecy claimed that he would be killed by his own grandson. But Zeus desired her, and entered her chamber as a shower of gold. The cupid overhead alludes to this union. Rembrandt was Dutch and a Protestant, living in a mercantile republic. Although he painted biblical and mythological scenes, his art suggests that he was most interested in the everyday, the human. His Danae is not an idealized nude like those of the Italian Renaissance, but a real woman in a domestic interior. Paintings like this were commissioned by wealthy men for their private enjoyment, and a work like this gives us insight into the lives and values of the Dutch Golden Age. To understand such images fully we can research the history of taste, the institutions of art such as the Guilds, and the place of women in 17th century Dutch society.