达那厄

This Danaë was made to hang in a private Paris mansion. In 1798, with the Revolution behind them, France's new financial men were building and decorating grand townhouses, and one of them, the finance official Martin-Michel Gaudin, commissioned Girodet to paint this golden mythological scene for his salon. It shows the princess Danaë receiving Zeus, who comes to her disguised as a shower of gold. Girodet actually painted Danaë twice around these years. The other, made in 1799, was a stinging satirical portrait of an actress who had crossed him, dripping with mockery. This one is the straightforward decorative version, all warm skin and falling gold, meant simply to look magnificent on a wealthy wall.