The Friday Evening Nudes

Paul Delaroche
1797-1856

Pierre Carrier-Belleuse

1851-1932

 Raphael

483-1520

 Gaston Bussièrre

1886      

Leda and the Swan

Bacchiacca (Francesco d'Ubertino) (Italian, Florentine, 1495–1557)
Oil on wood
( I really dig those hatching cherubs!)

Although Leda, wife of Tyndareus, king of Sparta, is commonly said to have conceived two children by her husband and two by Zeus during the same evening, Euripedes, in Iphigenia at Aulus, mentions a fifth child. Bacchiacca was no doubt familiar with the fourteenth-century Ovide moralisée, which states that Castor, Pollux, and Helen all emerged from a single egg, as here depicted at the right. The two children at the left must be Clytemnestra and Phoebe.
The pose of Leda derives from a print by Dürer, and the buildings in the left background from a print by Lucas van Leyden.   from Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

 Salome

Pierre Bonnaud
1865-1930

Fragonard

1782-1806

 Pierre Bonnaud
1865

And because she lopped off the head of a different man, for different reasons than Judith, here is a rendition of Salome.  Would anyone like to take a stab at identifying what the instrument laying on the tiger's hide might be? If you are the first to guess, (right or wrong, cuz I'm not sure either, I'll let you guest-host a segment of The Friday Evening Nudes.  And then you can ask your own inane questions!   ;-)


Have a great week-end family, friends and readers.
Peace,
Pagan Sphinx