Bernstock, Classical Mythology

Classical Mythology in Twentieth-Century Art: An Overview of a Humanistic Approach
Author(s): Judith E. Bernstock

Source: Artibus et Historiae, Vol. 14, No. 27 (1993), pp. 153-183
Published by: IRSA s.c.
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JUDITH E. BERNSTOCK
Classical Mythology in Twentieth-Century Art: An Over

Humanistic Approach
Background An investigation into the dualistic and often ambivalen

tentions of artists using mythological subject matter can b
cund field of study. This article attempts to provide an ov
Twentieth-century artists have continually drawn on classi-
of the
cal mythology in general, and certain myths in particular, for hu- humanistic implications of ancient Greek myths a
manistic reasons. They have tended to be less concerned withappear in twentieth-century art. The second part of the stu
cuses
illustrating literally the narrative content of myths, than with in-on those myths that are most frequently interpret
modern artists as bearing humanistic meaning.
terpreting them symbolically in accordance with their personal
experiences. In 1943, Mark Rothko and Adolph Gottlieb articu-
lated goals that link them with many other twentieth-century ar-
tists: they announced their aim to modernize myths through Mythology and History
poetic expression, and to "redescribe their implications through
[their] own experience."'1 Certain myths have appealed to artists in various hist
Instead of dwelling on the traditional superstructureperiods of because they lend themselves to symbolic represe
myths, reducing them to mere literary fables, most modern tions
ar-of contemporary ideas and events. For the modern a
tists have striven to grasp their deeper, more remote sig- then, classical mythology serves a purpose similar to that
nificance. Thus, they have conferred an important function it served for ancient man--in accordance with Walter Bu
upon the universal symbols of myths, rendering them integral definition of myth as "a traditional tale with secondary, par
to the subjects of their works. True to the character of ancient reference to something of collective importance."3 Twen
myths, modern culture preserves their dualistic quality; as century works of art based on classical mythology often
Claude L6vi-Strauss stated, mythic thinking engenders rela- responses to societal stresses; a few themes in particular
tionships parallel to the initial one.2 Consequently, throughout tended to appeal to artists in times of social and political d
twentieth-century art, the two opposing sides of mythological er. Andr6 Masson, Jacques Lipchitz, and other artists loo
characters are dealt with. mythological legends involving violence and struggle (su
153
JUDITH E. BERNSTOCK
1) Anselm Kiefer, (lIcarus, March Sand), Saatchi Collection, London.
the Rape of Persephone and Theseus Slaying the Minotaur), to

inescapable memories were preserved in symbolic remind
express negative attitudes toward World War II and fascism,
such as Masson's Niobe of 1947 (Musee des Beaux-Arts,
manifestations of man's animal nature.4 Using Lyon), specifica moving memorial to the suffering of women and
mythological subjects as thinly disguised metaphors for dis-
dren during the war.6
turbing events in Europe, these artists voiced their anguish
In and
their retrospective views of World War II, members
the younger generation have used mythology to illuminate
cries of despair over an impending doom--the possible des-
truction of all that was humane in Western culture. Lipchitz
present, as they transform history through mythology, an
worked "with the people in mind," when he portrayed individual
the ago- and collective imaginations of which it is a prod
ny of Europe in his renderings of mythological subjects, such
Contemporary German artists, in particular, freely interpret
as the Rape of Europa.s During the postwar period, harsh and
cent history in their attempts to come to terms with the
154
CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY IN 20TH-CENTURY ART
,-?r
...... ...
atf'O
., ........
2) Alexander Ko
Photo: D. James Dee.
memory of World War II by presenting an entirely different vi- tyrants--including Hitler, Lenin, and Stalin-with
legendary"
mythological
sion from that offered earlier by the Nazis. They direct us to the creatures; in their Minotauras a Participantin the
tragic consequences of nationalism; Anselm Kiefer's hu- Yalta Conference of 1984, Lenin, founder of Bolshevism, holds
manistic paintings portray ancient catastrophes in devastated the mask of the Minotaur above the image of Stalin, embodi-
landscapes equated with a ravaged Europe, as for example, the ment of Communism, at the Yalta Conference (Ronald Feldman
Fall of Icarus, implied in Icarus, March Sand of 1981 (Saatchi Fine Arts, New York) [Fig. 2]. Alluding to the destructive nature
Collection, London) [Fig. 1]. Alexander Komar and Vitaly of the Minotaur, Komar and Melamid remind us that Leninism
Melamid show the reality of World War II to be so lacking in im- would eventually foil the optimistic wartime alliance, and that
mediacy for their generation that it is easily assimilated into we should have been aware of the beast, for both its mask and
the realm of ancient myth. They satirically identify "almost the face behind it were visible.
155
JUDITH E. BERNSTOCK
holocaust that would exterminate all that is human and dear

to him.
Twentieth-century artists generally revive ancient myths

as part of their search for a common ground accessible to all.
Many artists use myths to show symbolically that the world is
a continuum of unchanged human experience; they see them
as metaphors for the primordial grief, fear, and violence of
mankind. The recourse to classical mythology reflects a need
to connect recent and contemporary history with age-old hu-
man urges and motivations. We look for the psychological past
of the individual in the past of mankind. Myths therefore
revolve around figures whose thoughts and feelings strike
deep chords of recognition in us. Myths have allowed modern
artists to see their lives and current events in terms of ancient
destiny, and to present an ostensibly detached analysis of
universal human passions. By viewing their fears and desires
as bonds between themselves and mythological characters,
representatives of a troubled humanity, artists have been able
to escape the isolation engendered by their obsessions. The
timeless tragic subject matter of the myth has been the means
through which they can express universal and eternal
concerns.
The Return to Origins
Modern artists have turned to classical m

to their Christian analogues), which relate
in primordial time ("the fabled time of th
with a curiosity about the mystery of the or
tence and the awakening of consciousness t
their presentiments of the future. Sculptu
3) Barnett Newman, ((Song of Orpheus)), Annalee Newman
Collection, New York. Photo: Malcolm Varon. Brancusi indicate his fascination with the r
express "the miraculous aspect of life,"8
bronze Sleeping Muse of 1910, in whose sl
potential awakening of artistic creativity.
Modern mythological metaphors of political conflict ex- drawings of organic imagery from 1945 (G
tend beyond the subject of World War II to universal anti-war Osiris, and The Song of Orpheus, Annalee Newman Collec-
statements. The idea of war has been a constant element in the tion, New York [Fig. 31) use the evolution of the seed and stem
lives of contemporary artists, either as an existing phenome- to convey his association of myths about the death and renew-
non or as the threat of nuclear disaster. Understandably, sever-
al of nature with his scientific investigation of the origins of life.
al modern artists have looked to Homer's Iliad for inspiration, The interest of twentieth-century artists in a return to ori-
and have identified with its legendary heroes embroiled ingins the has been described as a regression and, ultimately, an un-
Trojan War, the paradigm of all wars. In his 1977-78 series conscious
en- desire for death as a return to infancy and union with
titled "Fifty Days at Iliam" (DIA Foundation, New York), Cy the mother.10 In his explanation of the death instinct, Freud
Twombly interprets the Iliad as a poem concerned with afflic- proposed that death is the goal of all life, for all organic in-
tion, and ponders the nature of the human condition that leads stincts are directed toward regression, a return to one's origins
to war. His Fire That Consumes All represents a warning, an in the inorganic."11 Thus, modern artists focusing on myths
outcry of grief against the real possibility of a nuclear about the beginnings of existence are often equally preoc-
156
traints.
cupied with those concerning death. Many-including Alex-He emphasized the psychological truths inherent in
ander Liberman, Mimmo Paladino, Rothko, and Julian fantasy, dream, and myth, all of which need symbolic interpre-
Schnabel-seek to impart a sense of the universal terror of tation. His belief in the bliss of the origins or beginnings of the
death and the unknown, feelings inextricably linked with myth human being (the "primordial and paradisal time" of early
and ritual. In Greek Gods and Art, Liberman writes that the childhood), and in the ability to "go back" or relive traumatic
creative process resembles "a ritual exorcism of the fear of childhood incidents, is analogous to the development of myths
death," and "reveals to an artist a vision of survival after death, among the ancients,14 and the later visual reconstitution of
a suggestion of immortality."12 Myth had served a related them in modern art. The preoccupation of early and contem-
function for primitive man. porary peoples with learning about their origins and returning
to them through myths, has its counterpart in the development
of psychoanalysis itself and theories about the evolution of the
Classical Mythology and the Human Condition universe, humanity, and its institutions.
From the mid-1930s to the mid-1940s, the Surrealists' fo-
Modern artists frequently use classical myths to protest cus on dream, desire, and love led them to express these in
metaphorically against human suffering. Nancy Spero's Freudianized form through the somber myths of ancient
mythological women, such as Artemis in "For Artemis That Greece. Surrealist versions of mythological figures such as
Heals Woman's Pain," from Notes in Time on Women, Part 2, Theseus and Pygmalion reflect Freud's theories of the uncon-
collage on paper, 1979 (Josh Baer Gallery, New York), are jux- scious and the interpretation of dreams. 15 Freud had equated
taposed with contemporary ones in a portrayal of woman as the psychoanalytical discovery of the "timelessness" of the
both victim and scourge of man. Spero's mythical imagery, like unconscious with Odysseus's descent into the Underworld
that of other twentieth-century artists, reflects her many years (Odyssey, Book 11); in 1944, Robert Motherwell noted that the
of political activism. Surrealists had compared their journeys into the unconscious
The legendary figures from the House of Agamemnon have with the legendary tasks of mythical heroes. 16 The result was
lent themselves to symbolic protests against human sacrifice. a highly personal mythology characterized by chaos,
For Joseph Beuys, Iphigenia represents the embodiment of hu- metamorphosis, and violent eroticism. To Surrealists like Mas-
manity and its tragic readiness for sacrifice (action, 1969, Frank- son (who used classical mythology most frequently),17 an
furt; offset prints, 1974). For Chryssa, Clytemnestra personifies cient myth was like a dream in that it contained indestructible
a cry of anguish at the ultimate injustice, the taking of life (1967, imagery, was unlimited spatially and temporally, and belonged
metal and plexiglas; Albert A. List Family Collection. For Leon to another level of existence.
Golub, Orestes is man himself--lonely, frustrated, and unable to In their use of classical mythology, the young Abstract E
control his environment and his destiny (1956; Collection of Mr. pressionists were more influenced by Jung's theory of the c
and Mrs. Lewis Manilow, Chicago).13 lective unconscious, as expressed in archetypes and myths.
According to Jung, the investigation of the unconscious yields
traces of the archetypal structure, expressed in myth and fable,
Psychology because the creative substratum ("the deeper layer") is univer-
sal.18 The Abstract Expressionists learned from him that
Twentieth-century art based on classical mythology primitive and modern humanity are connected psychological-
generally manifests the modern creator's preoccupation with ly, for archaic thinking in myth and dreams is extant in childlike
the psyche, and with associations made between mythology and non-directive thinking.
and the unconscious in psychoanalytical literature, especially Jung's influence on the Abstract Expressionists was
Freud's Totem and Taboo (1913), Interpretation of Dreams strongest during the early 1940s, when the horrors of World
(1900), and Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of His Childhood War II confirmed their belief in the basic savagery of man. The
(1910); and Carl Jung's Psychologyof the Unconscious (1912), ideas of Jung are mirrored in the use of myth by Rothko to re-
later called Symbols of Transformation, and Integration of Per- veal the primitive psychological state of modern man, and by
sonality (1939), later called Psychology and Alchemy. John Gottlieb to express the darker side of man's nature and his link
Graham's Systems and Dialectics of Art (1937) provided to a primeval past. Their interest in the passionate forces that
another source of Jung's ideas for American artists. myth can unleash, appealing to the collective subconscious of
Freud traced the origin of myth to our first use of fantasya universal audience, derives from Jung. However, as William
to express our dreams and impulses, repressed by societal res- Rubin has demonstrated, Jackson Pollock's myth-based
157
JUDITH E. BERNSTOCK
works show the impact of Freud, despite the preponderance of

iconoclastic recasting of mythological themes, while still re-
criticism emphasizing the importance of Jungian analysis and the traditional grandeur, reveals the debt that these
taining
literature - which Pollock evidently did not read until later. young
Pol-Italians owe to Giorgio de Chirico, whose own obsession
lock's fascination with the Minotaur instead suggests that withheclassical mythology derived from his longing for the
took inspiration from Picasso and Freudian symbolism inGreece de- of his childhood. Similarly, familial backgrounds under-
veloping his personal mythology. 19 lay the interest in classical mythology of such diverse artists as
Significant parallels may be found in the visual and William
per- Baziotes, Chryssa, Reuben Nakian, and Theodoros
forming arts, as well as in literature. Stage sets and costumes Stamos. AncestralMyth (1947; Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Bransten,
designed by major modern artists for ballet and theatrical San Francesco) is one of several works emerging from
per-
formances based on mythological themes reflect the ex- Stamos's attempt to recapture the spirit of the ancient myster-
change of ideas among artists, writers, composers, and ies and the pantheism of his heritage from Greece, which he
choreographers. Some dance and dramatic productions have visited that year.
presented melanges of mythological symbolism, Freudian and Literary sources used by modern artists in treating classi-
Jungian psychology, and fantasy. Certain choreographers cal mythological themes range from Homer, the Greek tragedi-
have repeatedly used Greek myths to highlight the uncon- ans, Virgil, and Ovid, to their nineteenth- and twentieth-
scious fears and sexual desires revealed in them, and to depict century interpreters. Early-twentieth-century artists were
the predicament of the modern individual. Isamu Noguchi fre- well-grounded in the classics. For example, Aristide Maillol's
quently designed sets in the 1940s and 1950s for the ballets recitations of Virgil-one of his favorite writers, along with
of Martha Graham. He later said that, by 1948, he "had become Homer and Theocritus -inspired Henri Matisse to immerse
steeped in the transformations of myth in [his] sculptures, in himself in an Arcadian atmosphere; Paul Klee delighted in read-
the ballet Orpheus, and with the Greek cycle of Martha Gra- ing Greek tragedies in the original. More surprising, consider-
ham."20 Complementing Graham's preoccupation with psy- ing the changes in modern education, is that the interest of ar-
chology, Noguchi provided her with symbols for a subcon- tists in the classics does not seem to have waned. Twombly, for
scious eroticism and the mind's fears, secret hopes, and instance, is an avid reader of ancient poetry, including the Ae-
mythic connections; the work of both choreographer and neid and the Iliad, which he regards as "the quintessential
sculptor is deeply imbued with a sense of universal myth. 'poem of force'"; Greek tragedies offer Robert Kushner the ex-
Noguchi's sets reveal his understanding of mythology as a citement of rediscovering his own childhood, when classical
manifestation of the Jungian collective unconscious. myths seemed "very alive" to him.22
Works by such artists as Lennart Anderson, Milet An-
drejevic, and Thomas Cornell continue the native American
Classical Culture: Literature and Art tradition of attempting to recreate an Arcadian ambiance as an
escape from the stresses of modern society; these artists look
For contemporary Greek and Italian artists, the veneration to Virgil, who similarly sought a utopia in a distant era in
of pagan culture and its later artistic interpretations involves Greece, and to the idyllic images portrayed by Titian, Gior-
self-identification with their native heritage. These artists gione, Claude Lorrain, Poussin, and Puvis de Chavannes. The
merge art and mythology with subjects from history, folktales, humanist orientation of the Americans is evident in their belief
philosophy, and personal experience. Sandro Chia spoke for his that mythological themes are relevant to contemporary life,
generation when he said: and that they may be reinterpreted to enrich life experiences
and to reeducate the general public.
Making art means ... blending inside the crucible of the A widely read and influential modern source of classical
work both private and mythic images, personal signs tied mythology for twentieth-century artists has been James Fraz-
to the individual's story and public signs tied to culture and er's Golden Bough, in which primitive peoples are discussed in
history.21 terms of cultural institutions and customs that reveal the es-
sence of the archaic mind. Frazer showed that mythology wa
Works with mythological themes by several of these ar- universal, transcending geographical barriers. The Abstract
tists also reflect a close study of ancient religions. Vettor Pisa- Expressionists read his book, and several of his stories of an
ni's series of installations entitled R. C. Theatrum, starting in cient myth and ritual are detectable in their works of the ear
the late 1970s, constitutes a sort of modern theater of initia- 1940s. Many images of classical mythology by twentieth-
tion inspired by the Eleusinian mystery cult of Demeter. Their century artists (including Bacon, de Chirico, Masson, Rothko,
158
cluded Georges Bataille, Georges Limbour, and Michel Leiris.

Bataille conveyed his interest in Greek myths to Masson, the
two then collaborated in founding the Surrealist review
Minotaure in 1933, and their devotion to the subject continued
through the decade. Andr6 Breton wrote in the magazine View
in 1942:
I cannot grant you that mythology is only the recital of t

acts of the dead.... Have we not known for a long time
the riddle of the sphinx says much more than it seems
say?24
Breton's prediction that myth would be the subject of a new art

was realized in the work of the Abstract Expressionists. The in-
terpretations of myths published in View by American Sur-
realist writers, such as Hilary Arm and Parker Tyler, undoubted-
ly fed the imaginations of the young painters.
Inherent in the use of mythological themes by most
modern artists is a renewed respect for the humanism of classi-
cal culture. Even iconoclastic interpretations of mythological
figures by the Dadaist Man Ray, or more recent painters like Ko-
mar and Melamid, prove that the classical heritage is still a
strong force with which the twentieth-century artist must
contend. The enduring reverence for the Hellenic tradition is
frequently tied to a longing to return to the source of Western
civilization. Shortly after Barbara Hepworth travelled to
Greece, where, she said, she had returned to the "roots of her
existence," she began to create drawings and sculptures based
on Greek myths (such as her brass Orpheus, 1956, and Ulysses
in bronze, 1958).25 Henry Moore's visit to Greece in 1950 was
a crucial experience for him that resulted in a long series of
4) Robert Rauschenberg, <<Persimmon)), Leo Castellimythical Gallery, figures (e.g., a series of drawings of Prometheus,
New York. Copyright Robert Rauschenberg/VAGA 1950-51, New York, and a bronze Cyclops, 1963). These were new icons
1990. of "the modern consciousness of the Greek mystery, of the hu-
man rooted in the chthonic, of the sublime struggling to ex-
pression in a pagan death."26
Twentieth-century representations of mythological
and Earl Staley) have also been at least partly shaped bycharacters
their are often mediated by the art of earlier periods. In
reading of Friedrich Nietzsche's Birth of Tragedy (1872). With
interpreting, reverently or otherwise, representations of legen-
their humanistic concerns, these painters have been strongly dary heroes created by artistic giants who themselves have be-
impressed by Nietzsche's theory that the art of Greek come almost legendary, modern artists have produced images
tragedy
was born of a struggle and a marriage between Apollonian rich inand
complex cultural associations. When it comes to mytho-
Dionysian cultural forces. De Chirico responded to Nietzsche'slogical themes, the modern artists still measure themselves
portrayal of an ideal, distant Greek civilization; Rothko ac- against the past. Paul Delvaux's Pygmalion of 1939 (Musees
quired from Nietzsche a view of myth as "a concentrated im- Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels) reflects his lifelong inspira-
age of the world."23 tion from the idealized human figure in Greco-Roman art, as
Classical mythology was a common subject of debate well as his interest in ancient myths of matriarchal societies,
among Surrealist writers. In the 1930s, members of the French which led to his reversal of the Pygmalion myth. Golub, in his
literary avant-garde who advocated the use of mythology in- early mythological figures, including the above-mentioned
159
JUDITH E. BERNSTOCK
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5) Jos6 Clemente Orozco, ((Prometheus)), Pomona College, C
Orestes, emulated ancient artists because Castelli they portrayed

Gallery, New York) [Fig. 4] not
offers an equivalent of
only ideal man but also man isolated and Rubens'sstruggling against
robust and vital Venus at Her Toilet, surrounded by
society. images of dynamism and progress from the Kennedy era.
Even among the Dadaists, the blatant mockery of ancient
Below, the interpretation of a few selected myths by some
and Renaissance representations of mythological subjects twentieth-century artists is discussed.
contained a hidden homage, as in the satirical mythological
paintings of Francis Picabia in the mid-1920s, his "monster
period." Other artists have been less destructive: Helen Prometheus
Frankenthaler's Arcadia of 1962 (Collection of Mr. and Mrs.
R. Allen Griffin, Pebble Beach, Cal.) is a luminous, sensual The legend of Prometheus is the creation myth that has
modernized version of the eighteenth-century fWte cham- most inspired modern artists. In the twentieth century,
petre.27 Robert Rauschenberg's Persimmon of 1964 (Leo Prometheus is regarded as a positive symbol of the hopes, en-
160
durance, and achievements of mankind. This view of him ac-

cords with that of the ancients; both Aeschylus (Prometheus
Bound) and Hesiod (Theogony 535- 70) perceive the Titan as
mankind's benefactor, in opposition to Zeus, mankind's op-
pressor. Prometheus represents the prototypical culture god,
the hero responsible for the arts and sciences.28
Two types of portrayals recur in modern art, corresponding
to the traditional dualism of mythological heroes. When artists
have wanted to represent human progress, they looked to the
towering figure of Prometheus, who caused man's ancestors
to walk upright, gave them the ability to practice the human
arts, and brought them the gift of fire. Thus his image frequent-
ly appears in educational and cultural institutions, as being em-
blematic of their humanistic ideals. In his 1965 design for the
ceiling painting of the Theatre Odeon in Paris, Masson paid
tribute to the contribution of his friend Andr6 Malraux, the
minister of culture, by portraying Prometheus seizing the
sacred fire.29 Paul Manship's Prometheus Fountain of 1934
(Rockefeller Center, New York), designed in conjunction with
an architectural complex constructed between 1931 and
1940, glorifies the Titan as benefactor, and stands appropri-6) Constantin Brancusi, ((Prometheus),, Philadelphia Museum
ately amidst buildings associated with cultural progress, andof Art (Louise and Walter Arensberg Coll.).
in front of the RCA Building, a communications center. Edward
Laning's mural in the New York Public Library showing
Prometheus Descending with the Fire Stolen from Olympus
(1940), also fits in with the humanistic aim of its setting-- ate order ... a new mode of synthesis is evolved as a medi-
the enrichment of society through the advancement of cine."32 This view that art can be therapeutic for the state of
scholarship.30 humanity is evident in the mural, intended for a world that had
Twentieth-century symbolic representations of Prometheus recently experienced the New York stock market crash, the
as fire-bringer (for example, Ossip Zadkine's fire-bearing growing political ascendancy of Hitler's National Socialist
Prometheus, 1954, bronze; University Library, Frankfurt am Party, and the publication of Ortega y Gasset's La Rebelion de
Main) are innovative as existential statements of humanity's las masas.
attempt to find freedom and new meaning in life through art, Through Prometheus, a nocturnal god, the Gree
or the fire of the creative spirit.31 Albert Camus's 1946 essay vealed their close association of human suffering wit
"Prometh6e aux enfers" is akin to modern visual images of ness.33 His fate was seen as the disproportionate result
Prometheus the fire-bringer in its conception of a hero (artist) ing with a clear conscience, and therefore is akin to ex
who performs a crucial role in a sorely afflicted society. Camus suffering.34 To Aeschylus, Prometheus's misery is ir
reinterpreted the classical myth, allotting it a social message ble, because it is integral to his very existence:
relevant to the present: "We have to reinvent fire!" Artists now
To speak is pain, but silence too is pain,
see Prometheus's fire--the symbol of change and purification
And everywhere is wretchedness.
in Greek and Aztec mythology-- as a sign of the capacity of the
creative spirit to liberate man and cure society of its evils. (Prometheus Bound 199-200.)
Jose Clemente Orozco, in his 1930 Prometheus mural for
Pomona College in Claremont, Cal. [Fig. 5], surrounds the Ti- Thus, the suffering Prometheus represents the tragedy
tan with numerous small figures implying the masses of man's often futile attempts to fulfil his potential. Brancusi
mankind. Prometheus represents the creative force of art, marble Prometheus of 1911 (Philadelphia Museum of Art) [Fi
which brings order to the chaos wrought in the world by de- 6], an ovoid form reminiscent of the cosmogonical egg, seem
structive forces. Orozco said in 1930, "Art is the creating by to signify the realization of man's dream, but the downward
man of order in the universe.... When art does not properly cre- of his head indicates his despair over his inability to attain t
161
JUDITH E. BERNSTOCK
individual's fight against oppression, and the (artist's) attain-

ment of progress through suffering. Prometheus's final tri-
umph over the eagle that ate his liver while he was chained to
a rock has been transformed into a metaphorical expression of
the artist's conflicts with a hostile public and the bonds of his
art. Depictions of Prometheus are, therefore, traditionally also
spiritual self-portraits of the artist. For example, Orozco's
Prometheus is the isolated artist contending heroically with an
antagonistic crowd, as he brings humanity the very gift of
creativity that consumes him.
In his several versions of Prometheus in the 1930s, Lipchitz
symbolized the threats faced by Europe-the Depression, the
rise of Hitler, and the infiltration of anti-humanist ideas into
France.38 According to ancient literature, Prometheus did not
battle with the eagle. He was the passive recipient every night
of the portion of his liver that the eagle had eaten during the day.
Lipchitz's variation of the legend further exemplifies the in-
terpretive liberties taken by modern artists, who transform
myths in order to emphasize their rich humanistic implications.
In his monumental sculpture Prometheus Strangling the Vulture,
designed for the Palace of Discovery and Inventions at the 1937
Paris World's Fair, Lipchitz rendered mankind triumphant in a
struggle with destructive forces (a 1949 bronze version of the
1936 plaster original is in the Philadelphia Museum of Art [Fig.
71). Prometheus wears the Phrygian cap, the badge of democra-
cy, and demonstrates the modern conception of the Titan as the
ultimate humanistic mythological character: he embodies great
will, endurance, and faith in the power of the human mind and
spirit, and symbolizes the victory of light, science, and education
7) Jacques Lipchitz, ((Prometheus)), bronze, 1949 (after 1936 over the forces of darkness.
plaster version), Philadelphia Museum of Art (Lisa Norris

Elkins Fund).
Venus
absolute.35 Oskar Kokoschka later uses Prometheus to warn of Venus, goddess of love, has provided the perfect subject
the fatal risks connected with over-reaching human ambition: through which twentieth-century artists have expressed their
"In Prometheus, man should recognize himself in danger of association of humanistic and aesthetic ideals with woman.
transgressing the laws which his own nature has imposed."36 In Because she has represented the standard of beauty th
Prometheus Saga, his 1950 ceiling painting for the London resi- the centuries, Venus has lent herself to historicizing m
dence of Count Antoine Seilern (now in the Courtauld Institute any other mythical figure, and artists wanting to com
Galleries, London), Kokoschka conveys the need for Europe's earlier art are likely to turn to her. Some emulate the e
younger generation of artists to respect their Hellenic tradition ample- Helen Frankenthaler was inspired by Rubens's paint-
and to avoid the annihilation of their spiritual heritage through in-ing of voluptuous Helena Fourment (Venus at Her Toilet,
tellectual arrogance; undoubtedly, having survived two World Liechtenstein Collection, Vaduz) to paint in 1956 an abstract
Wars, he is also alluding to the possibility of man's self-destruc-but similarly sensuous Venus and the Mirror (private collec-
tion through the misuse of scientific knowledge.37 tion) [Fig. 8]. Others ridicule the age-old ideal: Picabia's deri-
Modern artists more commonly conceive of Prometheus sive paintings of Venus and Adonis (Faun, 1925-26, and Idyll,
as the ultimate victor in a struggle against a tyrannical power 1926; both in private collections) transform Titian's and
than as the giver of fire. For many, his agony has symbolized the Veronese's beauties into monsters; and Claudio Bravo's Venus
162
It?
.g, b .- '
Y~a .i :: , . .. ..
,,,., . , . . . .. . . , ,,!
.i. ""~t j
''
.or!.
..... ....
-..
8) Helen
Burckhardt.
163
JUDITH E. BERNSTOCK
Milo" of 1949. The destructiveness of the tyrannical imposi-

tion of cultural (and political) ideals is suggested in Komar and
Melamid's 1983 Venus ofMilo (Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New
York), showing the goddess with hammer and sickle in hand.
Michelangelo Pistoletto comments on the absurd state of con-
temporary art in his polyurethane Venus of the Rags (1967), an
ironic modern burlesque of Michelangelo Buonarroti's late,
Manneristic marbles.40
The imperiousness of the goddess in modern depictions
probably stems from the emphasis placed by many classical
myths on her power. The control exerted by this almighty fe-
male - whose very birth resulted from the castration of Uranus
(Hesiod, Theogony 154-206)-has seemed especially rele-
vant to twentieth-century man who has witnessed a growth in
woman's influence within Western society. Artists have been
strongly influenced by Freud's writings on the dominant fe-
male, and also by Das Mutterrecht by Johann Jakob Bachofen
(1861; translated in 1926 as Myth, Religion, and Mother Right),
on the development of matriarchal societies. Thus, based on
the traditional myth of Venus, the more significant role of wom-
en in modern society, and the ideas expressed in psychoanalyt-
ical and sociological writings, twentieth-century male artists
frequently portray the ideal of feminine beauty as triumphant,
sometimes even destructive, in her erotic aura.
On the other hand, modern artists have also interpreted
the eroticism of the goddess of fertility, who possesses the ir-
resistible generative powers of nature, as the female principle
and an antidote to the ruinous forces of modern man. Matisse
evoked an impression of organic growth and erotic erection
in his bronze images of the birth of Venus, Venus in a Shell
(1930, 1932) -which are celebrations of life in its natural, sen-
sual aspects.41 Salvador Dali's series of personalized Freudi-
an interpretations of Venus, begun in 1939, was clearly a
response to the violence of World War II, which he felt called
9) Man Ray, "Venus Restored)), silver print, 1971 (afterfor 1936
the healing powers of eroticism embodied in the god-
assemblage), Zabriskie Gallery/Artists' Rights Society, New dess.42 For Alexander Liberman, the swelling forms of his alu-
York. Copyright Juliet Man Ray. minum sculpture Aphrodite // of 1963 (Andr6 Emmerich
Gallery, New York) [Fig. 10], affirmed the capacity of the erotic
(union) to convey transcendence; through eroticism, art could
arouse man's resentment against the unhappiness of his con-
of 1971 (Marlborough Gallery, New York) parodies Velazquez's dition as well as awaken his ability to transcend it.43
Rokeby Venus (National Gallery, London). Man Ray alludes to The legendary brightness, lucidity, and warmth of
the oppressiveness of conformity to traditional ideals of beau- Venus44 continue to offer hope to a world constantly threat-
ty in Venus Restored (assemblage, 1936; silver print, 1971), in ened by nuclear disaster. The light of the goddess in Rauschen-
which the goddess is bound in ropes yet is characterized more berg's silk-screen paintings of the early 1960s, e.g., his Crocus
as enslaver than as helpless victim [Fig. 9]. As part of their ef- of 1962 (Leo Castelli Gallery, New York), counteracts the
forts to debunk established paragons of perfection,39 the Sur- darkness of the surrounding warlike images that forbode
realists presented a variety of caricatures of the Venus of Milo, death. Delvaux had responded in like manner to the bombing
for example Max Ernst's poem and illustration "The Mouse of of Brussels with his Sleeping Venus of 1944 (The Tate Gallery,
164
:.:
~?-i??"".i
":.ii'
40,.
?~?~;*4~Frs? .. ..
10) Alexander Liberman, ((Aphrodite II,, Andre Emmerich Galler
165
JUDITH E. BERNSTOCK
.,..
t~i f
???-
" 't'
.i ~.*
q '* i
i ?I
i
i
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I i
~br~~ " ~~- " ~kra~
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11) Paul Delvaux, ((Sleeping Venus)), The Tate Gallery, London. Photo: Art Reso
London) [Fig. 11], in which he intended "to symbol express anguish

of the inspirit. In the art of this century,
ideal Hellenic
contrast with the serenity of Venus."45 In however, this painting,
he has been athecontroversial figure. Many artists have
goddess flanked by a skeleton and agitated figures admired andprovides
identified with
an his reputation; but others, who
excellent example of modernizations of Renaissance and Ba- have different though equally humanistic ideals, have mocked
roque moralistic allegories showing beauty confronting death. the esteem in which Apollo and the rationality associated with
him have been held. They subscribe to Nietzsche's belief in The
Birth of Tragedy that the Apollonian obscured the Dionysian,
Apollo and Dionysos the true essence of tragic art. To Nietzsche, Apollo personified
restraint, proportion, and harmony. In favoring Dionysos over
Apollo, god of intellect, has always been connected with Apollo, several modern artists reject the latter's influence over
humanistic pursuits. As the god of light, music, poetry, dance, them and, further, the traditional superiority and aloofness
prophecy, healing, and pastoral pursuits, he is the essential from mankind of the "god of afar."46 Moreover, the glorious
166
Denkend sehen* Sehend denken

, . r
Documenta-Seminar
Leitung: Helmut Br6ker
. .. , . . . . ,. .". Kunst heute /Eindriicke, Gegeben-

heiten, Reaktionen, Hintergruinde,
Medien, Gattungen, Methoden, Er-
. ", . '' I- scheinungsweisen, Selbstdeutungen,
'' . .. ...- .
Anspriiche,
chungen, M6glichkeiten,
Milverstaindnisse, Vorur- Versu
t *j I
teile, Erwartungen, Grenzen, Ab-
haingigkeiten, dirkungen, MaBstabe,
Tendenzen (anhand charakteristi-
scher Beispiele)
Versuch einer nachtraglichen Auf-

bereitung des Gesehenen im leben-
i'0
" .,:
, . .i?.':' ... .' ,,". digen, allseits offenen Gesprach;
, - gedacht als Anregung, genauer hin-
zusehen und besser zu verstehen.i
12) Cy Twombly, ((<<Apollo and the Artist,,, Alessandro Twombly a-iglich, 14.00
Kulturhaus, -15.30 Uhr ' 0
Stdindeplatz
Collection, Rome.
" * " " . i' , ,."f

most Hellenic aura in which Apollo is enveloped today is essen-
tially the creation of the Romans. Even the Greeks had strongly
ambivalent feelings toward Apollo, viewing him not only as the 13) Joseph Beuys, ((Apollo with Beuys,,, Edition Staeck
sun-god but also as a mysterious deity associated with dark- Heidelberg.
ness- as the god of wolves, the bringer of the plague, and the
perpetrator of other frightful deeds.47
An example of the idealized Apollo from early in this centu-
ry appears in Imile-Antoine Bourdelle's marble frieze The fresh thinking and the questioning of fixed standpoints, and
Muses Running Toward Apollo of 1910-13 (Theatre des several of his appeals for consciousness-awakening that date
Champs-Ilys'es, Paris). Inspired by the dancing of Isadora from 1977, he appropriately identified himself and the thinki
Duncan, the frieze presents a ballet of rhythmical forms. The process with the god of enlightenment- as, for example, in t
Apollo here perfectly embodies harmony and order in civiliza- print Apollo with Beuys (Edition Staeck, Heidelberg) [Fig. 13
tion and art. Apollo as the paradigmatic artist possesses an from a leaflet designed for a seminar entitled "To See Thinkin
analogous character in Cy Twombly's 1975 drawing of Apollo To Think Seeing," at the Free International University at
and the Artist (Alessandro Twombly, Rome) [Fig. 12], distin- Documenta 6 in Kassel.
guished by a delicate balance between the name Apollo and an De Chirico's Song of Love of 1914 (The Museum of Mo
image of an open blossom signifying the awakening of the ar- Art, New York) is one of the first twentieth-century ex
tist's vision to the world. Joseph Beuys continually advocated of an artist's ridicule of Apollo. Based on their readings of
167
JUDITH E. BERNSTOCK
goddesses (dark rulers of the world and representatives of

death).49 Apollo's hatred of women, in particular mothers,
and of the earth associated with them, becomes in this paint-
ing-created when the feminist movement in the United
States was gaining momentum--a statement about modern

misogyny and male chauvinism.
Twentieth-century artists have been more sympathetic to
Bacchus than to Apollo, celebrating both sides of the character
of the wine-god for their contribution to civilization. The age-
old notion has persisted that Bacchus, patron of choral song
and drama, could liberate and inspire man through wine and ec-
static frenzy and, as god of fertility and regeneration (the ar-
chetypal image of indestructible life) could endow him directly
with creativity. In emphasizing the exuberant side of Di-
onysos's nature, many modern artists adopt the traditional
view of him as the embodiment of creative energy, the sap of
life, the throbbing excitement of nature. In this guise he ap-
pears in Picasso's lithograph Homage to Bacchus of 1960, and
Elaine de Kooning's series of "Bacchus" paintings from
1976-82.50
The writings of Nietzsche, Freud, Norman O. Brown, and
Herbert Marcuse have stimulated artists' interest in the cen-
trality of the Bacchic theme for an understanding of civil
tion. Brown associated uninhibited drunkenness with Freud's
id, the instinctual reality, and agreed with Nietzsche that Bac
chus destroys self-consciousness, whereas Apollo preserves
it.51 The greatest influence on modern artists and writers in
their thinking about Bacchus has been Nietzsche who, in Thus
14) Robert Rauschenberg, ((Gift for Apollo)), The Museum Spake Zarathustra
of and the Dithyrambs of Dionysos, identified
Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (Panza Coll.). Photo: Squidds himself with the god of wine, music, and lyric poetry. In The
and Nunns. Birth of Tragedy, Bacchus represents not only the excitement
of ecstasy but also the darkness of suffering and tragedy. After
being devoured by the Titans as a child, the reborn Bacchus
symbolized to the ancients the refound unity of the cosmos.
Nietzsche, de Chirico and his brother, Alberto Savinio, decided Nietzsche later stressed this aspect of Bacchus, contrasting it
that Apollo was fatuous, foppish, and superficial; The Song of with Apollo's association with individuation; and for de Chiri-
Love and other paintings specifically focus on the Apollo co, Bacchus represented the total unity that the artist tried to
Belvedere, which Savinio called "the portrait of a golfer.""48 rediscover in the silent public squares of his paintings from
Rauschenberg's combine-painting Gift forApollo of 1959 (The 1912-13.52
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles [Panza Collec- Nietzsche's experience of joy in the tragic, and his empha-
tion]) [Fig. 141, a wooden construction on wheels anchored by sis on its reflecting the powers of Dionysos, strongly in-
a pail, ironically refers to the god's once splendid but now fluenced de Chirico, Lovis Corinth, Andr6 Masson, Barnett
earthbound chariot, in a blatant criticism of our impractical Newman, and Mark Rothko, among others. A somewhat per-
goals and ideals. Similarly, Martha Mayer Erlebacher's Apollo verse and ironic delight in the destructive potential of Diony-
of 1971 (Robert Schoelkopf Gallery, New York) promotes a sos, corresponding to the Surrealist correlation of creation
"back-to-nature" policy and a rejection of Apollonian over-in- (sexual and artistic) with death, prevailed from the period of
tellectualizing. One may consider Erlebacher's image a recent the First World War until the end of the Second. A marked am-
extension of Helene Deutsch's theory that Apollo achieved his bivalence underlies Corinth's ostensible celebration of life in
status as sun-god through matricidal acts against earth- images of Bacchus in his Bacchanalia. Deeply concerned with
168
darkness and mortality, especially after his stroke in 1911,

Corinth simultaneously evoked the sublimity and the terror
basic to the worship of Bacchus. In Corinth's manic portrayals
of Bacchus, the protagonist always resembles the artist;
already in 1905, Corinth explicitly identified himself with the
god, in Self-Portrait as a Bacchanalian (private collection)
[Fig. 15].
For many years the spirit of Dionysos underlay Masson's
paintings. Jean-Paul Sartre wrote that after 1948, the artist
"reveal[ed] to us his Dionysiac myth in all its purity."53 Masson
himself had said that the gods in his mythological paintings are
black and somber: "I am more on the side of Dionysos than
Apollo."54 He was preoccupied with the creative and destruc-
tive aspects of the orgiastic impulse, "under the sign of Diony-
sos"; as a result of his own obsession with death, since he had
been severely wounded in battle in 1917, he could appreciate
the god's suicidal drunkenness.55 Of his generation in the late
1930s, he wrote, "tragic Greece, somber dark myths, were our
order of the day."56 The legacy of the Surrealist fascination
with the forces of Dionysos that govern mankind may be seen
today in the mythological paintings of certain young artists,
such as Earl Staley. The reigning god in his Triumph of Bacchus
IV of 1983 (Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York) and other "Bac-
chanalia" from the 1980s, suggests the dangerousness of
man's ravenous hungers when collective, whether in the form
of an orgy or a tyrannical regime.
Dionysos also figured prominently in the imagery of the
Abstract Expressionists, inspired by the tragic and by
Nietzsche. Newman called a painting of 1949 Dionysos (An-
nalee Newman Collection, New York), his only mythological
title of that year; he was probably commemorating Dionysos
as a representative of the productive powers of nature and as
the god of tragic art.57 In an eloquent essay that Newman 15) Lovis Corinth, ((Self-Portrait as a Bacchanalian)), private
wrote in 1945, he criticized ancient Greek art and its lack of collection. Photo: F. Bruckmann KG Bildarchiv, courtesy of
relevance for the present, but praised Greek tragedy: Wilhelmine Corinth Klopfer.
We as artists can paradoxically reject the Grecian form -

while we can accept Greek literature, which by its une-
quivocal preoccupation with tragedy is still the fountain- marks that Rothko similarly suggests Dionysos in all his mythic
head of art.58 works.60 According to Nietzsche, the viewer of Greek trage-
dies identified with the Chorus; the obscure settings and
Dore Ashton convincingly argues that Nietzsche's Bac- figures in Rothko's paintings reflect the Dionysos in modern
chus is important to Rothko's work. In his early paintings with man.
mutilated figures referring to the dismemberment of Bacchus,

and in his intention to create paintings that resemble dramas,
Rothko evokes Bacchus as the essence of tragic art.59 Orpheus
Nietzsche claimed that Greek dramatists before Euripides im-
plied the sufferings of Dionysos behind the masks of other Because of the affinities between Greek mu
mythological figures (The Birth of Tragedy, sec. 10); Ashton re- the ancient Greeks thought of Orpheus as a p
169
JUDITH E. BERNSTOCK
retrieve his dead wife from the underworld was the conse-
quence of his weak and flawed character. When Noguchi

designed the sets and costumes for George Balanchine's Or-
pheus (1948), he conceived of a mask to be worn by the legen-
dary musician, demonstrating the artist's blindness to materi-
al facts:
Orpheus [is] ... the artist ... blinded by his vision (the mask
... blinded to all material facts by the mask of his art.... H
tears off the mask and sees Eurydice as she really is, a crea
ture of death.62
On the other hand, because of Orpheus's extraordinary

creative gifts, twentieth-century artists have used him to sym
bolize the poet/artist with incantatory, transformative powers
De Chirico's Portrait of Apollinaire of 1914 (Mus6e National
d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris) [Fig. 16]
glorifies the modern poet by juxtaposing his silhouette with a
bust of Orpheus. The triumph of Orpheus here also serves as
a metaphor for the supremacy of painting; Apollinaire had
made the mythical singer the subject of several poems and had
stated, in Le Bestiaire ou cortbge d'Orph6e (1911), that paint-
ing, like poetry, is a luminous language.63 In the First Papers of
Surrealism (1942), Andr6 Breton would also honor Apollinaire
by likening him to Orpheus.
The ability of Orpheus to transform existence through
song has been a focus of twentieth-century artists and writers.
In Rainer Maria Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus (1922), the legen-
dary singer changed the physical world into a spiritual one of
16) Giorgio de Chirico, ((Portrait of Apollinairen), Mus6erhythmic
Natio- vibrations; in 1932, the American avant-garde
nal d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. newspaper Transition advocated the establishment of an "In-
ternational Workshop for Orphic Creation," the formation of a
new mythological reality. Ossip Zadkine's several bronze ver-
sions of Orpheus from 1948-61 show the artist concentrating
on the
musician and singer, and further, as the inventor of writing miraculous change, effected by Orpheus's music, of
and
all the arts.61 Modern representations of Orpheus tendprimordial
to fall men from wild to well-mannered beings. Inspired by
into two categories: those that idealize him and those that
the fo-
Surrealist fascination with the capacity of his music to
cus on his weakness, universalized to that of the creative in- move both the animate and the inanimate, Zadkine saw Or-
dividual. The larger group encompasses works whose origins pheus as symbolic of the artist who, with his magic, could
may ultimately be traced to the early Greek conception of Or- arouse the spectator and activate the object. Zadkine saw him-
pheus as the founder of a religious cult, and as a figure of peace self and his art as performing an Orphic task.
and calm, a musician whose notes could move and tame all of Orpheus also embodied the modern experience of death.
nature. He is the champion of humanism, the civilizer of nature, After he had been severely wounded on the battlefield,
and the representative of suffering multitudes. Kokoschka in 1917-18 created a play, a painting, and a series
In the second category, the irrationality and impetuous- of etchings based on the Orpheus myth; in these he projected
ness of man (artist) is condemned through Orpheus. This ap- his own sensation of descending into the Underworld to con-
proach follows in the tradition of Virgil (Georgics 4:453-527) front death. The Surrealists equated Orpheus's venture into
and Ovid (Metamorphoses 10:1-128, 11:1-79), according to the Underworld in search of his wife with a Freudian explora-
which the tragic fate of the legendary artist/lover who failed totion of the unconscious. Near the conclusion of World War II,
170
17) Max Beckmann, (uRemoval of the Sphinxes), Kunsthalle, Hamburg.
artists like Lipchitz, in his Joy of Orpheus bronze of the king.65

1945, or Modern treatments of the two themes are linked
by theirof
Newman, in his Song of Orpheus [Fig. 3], used the descent emphasis on philosophical and psychological aspects
Orpheus to symbolize their own hopes for the rebirth of ofhuman
a vitalconflicts, generally between men and women, the
and humane civilization.64 individual and society. An explicit association of the sphinx
with the evil in modern society appears in Max Beckmann's
Removal of the Sphinxes of 1945 (Kunsthalle, Hamburg) [Fig.
Oedipus 17], symbolizing the liberation of Holland from Nazi occupa-
tion; that the sphinxes appear to be both French and Ger-
Two parts of the legend of Oedipus have appealed to man suggests that Beckmann sees bestiality in all human
twen-
tieth-century artists: (1) his solution of the riddle of the actions.66
sphinx,
who had devastated the lands of his father, King Laius of Twentieth-century artists have typically regarded the
Thebes; and (2) his murder of his father, his subsequent mar- story of Oedipus and the sphinx as one of self-recognition and
riage to his mother, Jocasta, and his self-punishment upon dis- narcissistic self-discovery, according to Bachofen's (as well as
covering his own incestuous acts. Images of the Oedipus myth Hegel's) interpretation of the encounter as a vital episode in
thus relate either to Oedipus and the sphinx, or to Oedipus man's transition to a "higher stage of existence.'" Picabia's
171
JUDITH E. BERNSTOCK
18) Leon Golub, ((The Prince Sphinx), Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York.
various portrayals of the myth in the 1920s, like most modern

Donald Kuspit writes, for Golub, the sphinx is the most ancient
ones, reflect man's sexual uncertainties and the metaphysical
self-image of man, showing him viewing himself as a monster
in the past and the present.73
anxiety involved in his search for his origins.68 For twentieth-
century artists, and for the Surrealists in particular, theModern
value thinking about Oedipus the king has been shaped
of the myth lay in its revelation of psychological truthsby Freud and Jung.74 Ernst's image of castration in Oedipus
through
a symbolic narrative.69 The Surrealist view of Oedipus Rexderived
of 1922 (private collection, Paris) reflects the artist's Freud-
partly from Bachofen's ideas on the development of the Greek
ian interpretation of the myth, and his own Oedipal pattern of
matriarchal system and its obsession with the sphinx as "the
behavior with his father. The Abstract Expressionists took a
embodiment of tellurian motherhood ... the feminine broad right ofof the implications of the later part of the myth. Dur-
view
the earth in its dark aspect as the inexorable law of death." 70
ing the early 1940s, when America entered World War II, Oedi-
Masson's Oedipus Flayed of 1938-39 (Baltimore Museum pus served as a symbol of man's violent and tragic nature; in
of Art) exemplifies the Surrealist interpretation of Oedipus's several of Gottlieb's images of the legendary king dating from
conflict with the sphinx as a sexual struggle between the male this period, such as Oedipus of 1941 (Adolph and Esther Gott-
and the female (destroyed of man) principles.71 Such recurrent lieb Foundation, New York), Gottlieb appropriates the motif of
themes reflect the concern of the Surrealists with the polariza- the single eye (usually indicative of inner vision) from the Sur-
tion of the female image, and their conflicting responses to realists to suggest the haunting aura of guilt feelings and inner
woman's spiritual role as an inspiration for male creativity and conflicts associated with voyeurism.75 Influenced by Freud,
her biological role as an actual generator of life. The subject of who had interpreted Sophocles's essentially innocent Oedi-
androgyny therefore underlies Surrealist treatments of the pus as guilty,76 Gottlieb and other artists saw Oedipus as
Oedipus myth, as demonstrated in a 1935 print by Ernst that representative of man's eternal struggle with himself and soci-
appeared in several Surrealist publications: Oedipus and the ety. Gottlieb may have further considered Oedipus's quest for
Sphinx combines man and sphinx in a single creature -a per- truth through the personal unconscious to be a metaphor of
fect blend of male and female, and the ideal of artistic fecundi- the artist's search for meaning during a world crisis. Moreover,
ty.72 The legacy of the Surrealist notion of Oedipus and the Jung's interpretation of Oedipus as a symbol of the collective
sphinx as a composite creature may be found in Golub's fero- unconscious, and as a link between modern and archaic man,
cious male sphinxes, which represent man's self-division and inspired the Abstract Expressionists to view the myth -with
his disintegrated self, as, for example, in The Prince Sphinx of its themes of incest and patricide -as timeless and relevant to
1955 (Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York) [Fig. 18]. As modern existence because it expressed man's basic savagery,
172
19) Henri Matisse, ((The Blinding of Polyphemusn, page from Ulysses by James Joyce (Limited
Editions Club, New York, 1935). Etching, printed in black, page size: 11 5/8 x 9 1/16 in. The Museum
of Modern Art, New York (Louis E. Stern Coll.).
173
JUDITH E. BERNSTOCK
made all too clear in the war.77 Shortly thereafter, Martha Gra-
ham made incest the subject of Night Journey (1947), a ballet
based on the Oedipus myth, and Noguchi designed a bed as its
central sculpture, which he described as "a double image of
male and female."78
Odysseus
Many twentieth-century artists have identified them-

selves with Odysseus/Ulysses, who wandered for ten years
before reaching home. The humanistic appeal of Homer's hero
thus relates to his peregrinations, which constitute the mytho-
logical equivalent of the modern individual's existential jour-
ney. After Kokoschka's long travels following his departure
from Vienna in 1934, before he finally settled at Villeneuve in
1953, he fittingly said of his Odyssey lithographs (1964-65):
I loved my Odyssey and while drawing the pictures felt per-

fectly identified with the hero ... as a vagabond, as an eter-
nal wanderer.79
In Matisse's illustrations for a 1935 American edition of

James Joyce's Ulysses, he refers to the classical epic as muc
as to its modern literary interpretation. The etched line in
Blinding of Polyphemus [Fig. 19] evokes the legendary vigo
Odysseus's character and the gruesomeness of the in-
cident.80
Barnett Newman, who praised the virtues of the ancient
Greek writers, also admired Joyce's book and himself wrote
fiction reflecting its influence. His painting Ulysses of 1952
(Menil Collection, Houston) [Fig. 201 suggests Newman's
identification with the subject in his own long quest for per-
sonal and artistic identity. The ubiquitous deep blue in the
painting is evocative of the sea on which Odysseus endlessly
voyaged. Newman's existentialist and anti-heroic interpreta-
tion of Greek tragedy recalls Joyce's assertion "that the whole
structure of heroism is and always was a damned lie and that
there cannot be any substitute for the individual passion as the
motive power for everything."81 Joyce's anti-heroic concept
itself, however, may have arisen from Homer's own perception
of human absurdity.82 Similarly, Newman wrote:
Greek tragedy constantly revolves around the sense of

hopelessness that no matter how heroically one may act,
no matter how innocent or moral that action may seem, it
20) Barnett Newman, ((Ulysses)), Menil Collection, Houston.
inevitably leads to tragic failure because of our inability to
Photo: David Allison, New York. understand or control the social result; that the individual
174
the fundamental solitude of man. Because de Chirico's family

changed address so often, the artist later identified with Od
seus and based many paintings on his legend, e.g., Ulysses o
1922 (private collection, Milan) and The Return of Ulysses
1968 (private collection, Paris). Like other twentieth-centu
artists, de Chirico universalizes his personal associations wi
the ancient hero; the wanderings of Odysseus constitute a
parallel to the course of modern human existence. By focusing
on them, twentieth-century artists have remained faithful to
the essence of Homer's text, which, as Pietro Pucci empha-
sizes, uses the epithets polutropos to denote Odysseus (Odys-
sey 1:1) and his many voyages ("turns"), and hupotropos
("turning back"), to indicate the impossibility of a "return to
the same."85
The Cretan Saga
The legend of the Minotaur has appealed to twentieth-

century artists seeking to express the continual search inward
and outward -the attempt to come to terms with oneself and
with surrounding forces.86 The Minotaur, the monstrous off-
spring of Queen Pasiphad and the Cretan bull, fascinates ar-
tists as an image of unnatural passion and sexual union. The
Minotaur was confined in a labyrinth designed by Daedalus,
until it was slain by Theseus, who, according to one tradition,
penetrated the depths of the maze with the assistance of Ari-
adne's ball of thread. Generally, twentieth-century artists and
writers have seen Theseus's entry into the labyrinth as an initi-
ation rite through which man tries to reach his own well-guard-
21) Max Beckmann, ((Odysseus and Calypso,,, Kunsthalle,
Hamburg. Photo: Elke Walford. ed center.87
Inspired by Nietzsche's "Ariadne's Lament" in the
Dithyrambs of Dionysos, de Chirico associated the early stage
of Ariadne's legend-the entry into the labyrinth-with the
melancholy of the individual and his search for awareness. The
act is a gesture in chaos so that we are consequently the
helpless victims of an insoluble fate.83 many works by De Chirico that include a prototypical Roman
copy of a Greek statue of Ariadne, such as The Joys and Enig-
mas of a Strange Hour of 1913 (private collection), made a
When forced by circumstances to leave home, the twen-
tieth-century male artist has obviously regarded himselfstrong
as a impression on the Surrealists, who used this legend
sort of modern Odysseus. During Max Beckmann's years of more
ex- than any other group in order to convey their interpreta-
tions
ile from Nazi Germany, he referred to himself in his diary as of Freudian psychology. To them, Theseus represented
"poor Odysseus,"84and many of the works he created in thethisconscious life of reason and order, and his journey into the
labyrinth-the passageway to the inner psyche-to confront
period refer to episodes in the Odyssey. The humanistic mean-
the Minotaur was considered analogous to the artist's search
ing of the painting Odysseus and Calypso of 1943 (Kunsthalle,
for the unknown in the depths of his mind, as in Masson's Story
Hamburg) [Fig. 21] is clear in the veiled allusion to contem-
porary events: Beckmann portrays Odysseus and Calypso of Theseus (see n. 4); they equated Ariadne's thread with the
seeking refuge together from a martial environment. Theirfabric of self-knowledge achieved by dream analysis and free
associations.88
parting signifies the impossibility of real human contact and During the later years of Surrealism, Masson
175
JUDITH E. BERNSTOCK
focused on the theme of self-interrogation in works based on

the labyrinth and Minotaur legends, e.g., the painting The
Labyrinth of 1938 (Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris) [Fig. 22], and
the ink drawing The Invention of the Labyrinth of 1942 (private
collection, New York). The ancient maze had additional sig-
nificance for Masson, who identified with it the tangle of lines
produced early in the evolution of his automatic drawings, as
he explored his unconscious,89 and the improvisational line
from which his painting derived.
The Surrealists were also concerned with the elemental
forces of Eros and Thanatos in the Theseus legend. The on
exit from the labyrinth was via the Minotaur, the embodi
of brutal death and savage eroticism, and therefore assoc
with the devastating events occurring in Europe. Artists
France and in the United States pointed to the violence and
despair inherent in the legendary sacrifice of youths to the
Minotaur, making their voice an anguished cry of protest
against the horrors of fascism. Pasiphae, whose desire for the
Cretan bull was equated with the attempt of modern man to
cope with his destructive, animalistic instincts (the id), was
the subject of works by Masson and Pollock during World War
II, in which man's most bestial tendencies were unsparingly
acknowledged.90
Between 1933 and 1939, major European artists intrigued
by the concept of metamorphosis- Picasso, Rend Magritte,
Marcel Duchamp, Joan Mir6, Dali, Max Ernst, and Masson-
designed covers for Minotaure.91 These showed the Minotaur
as a monster which, like the Freudian id, threatened to violate so-
cial and psychic norms; it symbolized the psychic underworld to
which Freud attributed man's most potent impulses. John
Golding indicates that the Surrealists' interest in the Minotaur,
because of its unusual conception and its association with the
Freudianized id, was quite different from Picasso's self-identifi-
cation with the creature, which he portrayed as a humanized
figure embodying man's predicament.92 Picasso's Minotauro-
machy (1935), therefore, may be interpreted as a metaphorical
depiction of the moral conflict between truth and irrationality,
light and darkness, and good and evil, in extreme contradistinc-
tion to the Surrealists' subjects. Unlike their images of darkness
and disorder, Picasso's 1933 maquette for the cover of
Minotaure (The Museum of Modern Art, New York) [Fig. 23]
shows a playful pet. Picasso's treatment of mythological themes
expresses his continued admiration for the classical heritage,
whereas the Surrealists' works mirror their revolt against it.
Nevertheless, Minotauromachy and other prints demonstrate
that Picasso was strongly affected by the Surrealists' use of
22) Andre Masson, ((The Labyrinth)), Galerie Louise"Freudianized"
Leiris, classical mythology.93
Paris. The Surrealist tendency to see the Minotaur myth as an ex-
position of psychoanalysis continued with variations in the
176
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23) Pablo Picasso, maquette for cover of ((Minotaure,) (May 1933, Paris), collage, 19 1/8 x 16 1/8 in. The Museum
of Modern Art, New York (Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Alexandre R Rosenberg).
177
JUDITH E. BERNSTOCK
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24) Jimmy Ernst, <<(Icarus)), Co
visual and Melamid's above-mentioned

performing arts Minotaur as a Participant in the Yalta th
during
rand into the Maze (1947), addressing universal desires and Conference of 1984 [Fig. 2] is evidence that the beast continues
repressed emotions, Martha Graham translated the Minotaur to be used as a symbol of political tyranny. Lenin appears all the
legend into the experience of a woman struggling with sexual more terrifying-but also ridiculous-in his Minotaur mask.
fears. The rope sculpture that Noguchi designed as a set implied
an abstract landscape of fear-the interior space of the mind,
"the extremity we must all face, ourselves."94 Daedelus and Icarus
The Cretan saga still has a hold on artists. A nocturnal room
in one of Pisani's installations, in 1980 (Galleria Mario Pieroni, Leonard Baskin's bronze Daedalus (1967) is an example
Rome), linked the labyrinth with death/sleep.95 Komar and the predictable self-identification of many artists with the l
178
dary architect of the Cretan labyrinth, and the creator of the ceptible
first miniature Icarus falls from the sky above an idyllic
free-standing sculptured figure.96 Twentieth-century artists scene. Classicizing artists like Andrejevi6 present impersonal,
have also been inspired by Icarus, who died following his escape
modernized versions of Bruegel's painting; in both the original
with his father, Daedalus, from Minos's Crete. The imageswork of and modern versions, life continues -the fall of Icarus fails
Icarus flying close to the sun, which melted the wax on his to disturb the harmony between man and nature.
wings, and his subsequent fall into the sea, continue to have Many years after he had seen the Bruegel, Jimmy Ernst
broad humanistic appeal for modern artists. described his youthful reaction to it:
In the twentieth century as in the past, the moral tragedy of
Icarus, who suffered the fatal consequences of not heeding his I did not endear myself to my rigid tutors by agreeing that
father's advice, has generally symbolized the penalty for an ex- Icarus was indeed at fault, not for disobedience, but for hav-
cess of zeal and ambition in political, social, and artistic do- ing, in the first place, unquestionably trusted artificial wings
mains. In the text accompanying his ddcoupage of Icarus, in fashioned by his father... A strange anger suddenly took
Jazz (1947), Matisse recalls an airplane flight he once took, and possession of me. The ancient dilemma: Should a son make
instructs aspiring artists to develop a strong basis in technique use of wings fashioned by his father? I bolted from the build-
before attempting something beyond their range: "Un moment ing and delivered myself of a tirade against all painting.99
si libre. Ne devrait-on pas faire accomplir un grand voyage en
avion aux jeunes gens ayant termine leurs 6tudes."97 As men- Ernst, of course, had grown up in the shadow of a famous father.
tioned above, in Icarus, March Sand [Fig. 1], Kiefer characteristi- The lasting significance of the myth for him reflects his long
cally identifies an ancient tragedy with recent German national- struggle to create an artistic image independent of Max Ernst's,
ism, the destructive consequences of which are suggested by a and his development of the view that a man can depend only on
ravaged landscape. Through a pessimistic rendering of Icarus as his own deeds.
a white skeleton plunging into the sea near Cannes, Picasso's

mural of 1958 for the UNESCO headquarters (Foyer des De-
legues, Paris) had presented a related statement, directing its
warning at inordinately ambitious and aggressive nations.98
The long-standing importance of Pieter Bruegel's Falloflcar- Clearly, these works are a mere sampling of those refle
us for contemporary artists is evident in works such as Jimmy the interest of modern artists in classical mythology. Many
Ernst's Icarus of 1962 (Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, myths, too, have exerted wide influence. However, the my
D.C.) [Fig. 24], and Milet Andrejevi6's Scene in the Park of 1981 discussed here far surpass others in their number of huma
(Robert Schoelkopf Gallery, New York), in which a barely per- interpretations by twentieth-century artists.
Part of this article was presented at the annual meeting of the College A few recent exhibition catalogues have considered the revival of
Art Association of America on 15 February 1990. Unless otherwise the antique tradition in modern art, but without focusing specifically on
stated, all works cited are oil on canvas. classical mythology. Three that deal with the subject are quite different
1 Letter of 7 June 1943 from Mark Rothko, Adolph Gottlieb, and in scope and point of view from the present study; see E. Billeter, Mythos
Barnett Newman (whose name was not mentioned) to Edward Alden und Ritual in der Kunst der 70er Jahre: Kunstverein in Hamburg, 7 Nov.
Jewell; published as "The Realm of Art: A New Platform and Other Mat- 1981-3 Jan. 1982, Zurich, 1981; H. Friedel, Der Traum des Orpheus:
ters: 'Globalism' Pops into View," The New York Times (13 June 1943),Mythologie in der italienischen Gegenwartskunst 1967 bis 1984,
p. X9. These artists restated their ideas in a broadcast of the New York
Munich, 1984; and B. C. Matilsky, Classical Myth and Imagery in Con-
radio station WNYC, 13 October 1943. temporary Art, New York, 1988.
179
JUDITH E. BERNSTOCK
2 C. Levi-Strauss, The View From Afar, New York, 1985, trans. J. For a full elaboration of his interpretations of classical mythol-
d6but."
Neugoschel, P. Hoss, p. 173. ogy, see idem, Mythologie d'Andrd Masson, Geneva, 1971, ed. J.-P.
3 W. Bu rkert, Structure and History in Greek Mythology and Ritu- Cl6bert.
al, Berkeley-Los Angeles, 1979, p. 22 and p. 153, n. 5. See also idem, 18 C. G. Jung, "Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious," In-
Greek Religion, Archaic and Classical, Oxford, 1985, trans. J. Raffan, tegration of the Personality, New York, 1939, trans. S. M. Dell, esp. pp.
pp. 8-9; and R. Barthes, Mythologies, London, 1972, trans. A. Lavers. 52-55.
4 If violence itself was not explicit (in these works), the threat of 19 See W. Rubin, "Pollock as Jungian Illustrator: Th
it was. For example, see Thomas Hart Benton, Persephone (The Nel- Psychological Criticism," Art in America LXVII (Decemb
son-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Mo. [on loan from the Benton 104- 23. On Gottlieb's treatment of myth during World W
Trust], 1938-39); Gottlieb, Rape of Persephone (Annalee Newman M. Berger, "Pictograph into Burst: Adolph Gottlieb and t
Collection, New York, 1943); Jacques Lipchitz, Theseus and the of Myth," Arts LV (March 1981), pp. 134-39; M. R. Davis,
Minotaur(1942), bronze; and Andr6 Masson, Storyof Theseus, in twographs of Adolph Gottlieb: A Synthesis of the Subjectiv
versions (private collection, Paris, c. 1938; Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Rational," Arts LII (November 1977), pp. 141-47; and M. D. Mac-
Lawrence M. Saphire, New York, 1939), both oil and sand on wood. Naughton, "Adolph Gottlieb: His Life and Art," in L. Alloway, M. D.
5 Jacques Lipchitz, quoted in A. M. Hammacher, Jacques Lip- MacNaughton, Adolph Gottlieb: A Retrospective, New York, 1981.
chitz, New York, 1975, trans. J. Brockway, p. 217. 20 1. Noguchi, Isamu Noguchi: A Sculptor's World, foreword by R.
6 C. Lanchner, "Andr6 Masson: Origins and Development," in W. Buckminster Fuller, New York, 1968, p. 29. Martha Graham's cycle us-
Rubin, C. Lanchner, Andr6 Masson, New York, 1976, pp. 178-79, sug- ing Greek myths culminated in the dance-drama Clytemnestra (1958),
gests that Masson's painting was inspired by a description of Niobe for which Noguchi provided the costumes and sets.
in a poem by Georges Duthuit about the German occupation of Paris, 21 Sandro Chia, quoted in D. Waldman, Italian Art Now: An Ameri-
Le Serpent dans la galore, New York, 1945, n.p. can Perspective, 1982 Exxon International Exhibition, New York, 1982,
7 M. Eliade, Myth and Reality, London, 1964, p. 5. p. 11; from A. Bonito Oliva, The Italian Trans-avantgarde, Milan, 1980,
8 Constantin Brancusi, quoted in I. Jianou, Brancusi, London- p. 18.
Paris, 1963, p. 64. 22 Conversation with Robert Kushner in November 1987. On
9 See M. Eliade, "Brancusi and Mythology," Ordeal by Labyrinth, Twombly's opinion of the Iliad, see J. B. Myers, "Marks: Cy Twombly,"
Conversations with Claude-Henri Rocquet, Chicago, 1982, trans. D. Artforum XX, no. 8 (April 1982), p. 55.
Coltman, pp. 193-201, emphasizes that Brancusi's "interiorization" 23 F. Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy, New York, 1956, trans. F.
allowed him to see the world as primitive man did, and that the sculp- Golffing, p. 136. See A. Chave, Mark Rothko: Subjects, Atlanta, 1983,
tor realized the need to discover the "sources" of folk art. p. 27. For earlier discussions of Nietzsche's influence on Rothko, see
10 See F. S. Levine, The Apocalyptic Vision: The Art of Franz nn.Marc
63, 64, below.
as German Expressionism, New York, 1979, p. 13. 24 A. Breton, "The Legendary Life of Max Ernst, Preceded By a
11 S. Freud, "Beyond the Pleasure Principle" [1920], The Stan- Brief Discussion of the Need for a New Myth," View I (April 1942), p. 5.
dard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, 25 See A. M. Hammacher, Barbara Hepworth, London, 1968,
London, 1953, trans. J. Strachey, in collaboration with A. Freud, XVIII, p. 112.
pp. 36-40. See also M. Eliade, Birth and Rebirth: The Religious Mean- 26 H. Read, Sculptures and Drawings Since 1948, II1: Henry
ings oflnitiation in Human Culture, New York, 1958, trans. W. R. Trask. Moore, 2d ed., London, 1965, p. xi. Similarly, Liberman's trip to Greece
12 A. Liberman, Greek Gods and Art, New York, 1968, p. 14. and Italy in 1964-65 greatly influenced the future development of his
13 These modern interpretations of Clytemnestra and Orestes art; in addition to the sculptor's Greek Gods, see B. Rose, Alexander
clearly differ from that of Aeschylus, according to whom, as Thomas Liberman, New York, 1981, pp. 137-41.
Gould ("The Innocence of Oedipus," in H. Bloom, ed., Sophocles' 27 See B. Rose, Frankenthaler, New York, 1972, p. 50.
"Oedipus Rex," New York, 1988, p. 55) indicates, Clytemnestra was 28 On Prometheus, see K. Ker6nyi, Prometheus: Archetypal Im-
dishonorable in her responsibility for her crime, and Orestes was ad- age of Human Existence, New York, 1963, trans. R. Manheim, Bollin-
mirable in his innocence. See also D. Kuspit, Leon Golub: Existen- gen Series 65, vol. I; L. S6chan, Le Mythe de Promdthde, Paris, 1951;
tial/Activist Painter, New Brunswick, N.J., 1985, p. 48, for an interest- U. Bianchi, "Prometheus, der titanische Trikster," Paideuma VII (1961),
ing interpretation of Golub's Orestes. pp. 414-37; and J. Duchemin, Promdthee: histoire du mythe, de ses
14 See Eliade, Myth and Reality, pp. 78-79. origines orientales B ses incarnations modernes, Paris, 1974.
15 For the Surrealists, the myth of Pygmalion understandably 29 Tragedy and Comedy Dividing Certain Aspects of the Human
provided a metaphor of transformations and metamorphoses relating Passion; see Lanchner, pp. 194-97.
artistic creation to life and death, dream and awakening, and eroti- 30 Among the many related apotheoses of Prometheus's inter-
cism; see, for example, Masson's Pygmalion (1937), and Paul Del- vention on behalf of humanity, to whom he brings the gift of fire, are:
vaux's painting mentioned below, in text. On Surrealist depictions of Harry Anderson's Prometheus Lamp (Gallery of Applied Arts, New
the myth, see W. Chadwick, Myth in Surrealist Painting, 1929- 1939, York, 1982); Newman's Prometheus Bound (private collection, 1952);
Ann Arbor, Mich., 1980, pp. 29-30; idem, "Eros or Thanatos-The and Liberman's painted aluminum relief of Prometheus (University of
Surrealist Cult of Love Reexamined," Artforum XIV, no. 3 (November Minnesota, St. Paul, 1964), originally commissioned for the New York
1975), pp. 50-51. For Theseus, see below in text. State Pavilion of the New York World's Fair.
16 See S. Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams, in Standard Edi- 31 C. Lichtenstern, Ossip Zadkine, 1890- 1967: der Bildhauer un
tion, V, 553; and R. Motherwell, "The Modern Painter's World," Dyn seine Ikonographie, Berlin, 1980, pp. 121-23.
VI (November 1944), p. 13. 32 In an interview in Student Life, Pomona College, Claremont,
17 A. Masson, Vagabond du surrdalisme, Paris, 1975, ed. G. Cal. (26 May 1930). See also D. W. Scott, "Orozco's Prometheus,"
Brownstone, p. 136, writes of himself, "Je suis mythologue depuis le College Art Journal XVII, no. 1 (Fall 1957), p. 15.
180
33 See Ker6nyi, Prometheus, pp. 39-40. Descharnes, Dali, pp. 164-65. He later recalled that his first sculpture,
34 See Hammacher, Lipchitz, p. 217. a clay copy of the Venus of Milo, had provided an "unmistakable and
35 See Jianou, Brancusi, pp. 66-67. Through a vastly more delightful
com- erotic pleasure"; see The Secret Life of Salvador Dali, Lon-
plicated bronze form, Gerhard Marcks also stresses man's ultimate don, 1973, trans. H. M. Chevalier, p. 71.
powerlessness (Prometheus Bound II, 1948; a 1943 version was 43 See
de-Rose, Liberman, p. 125.
stroyed). Another representation of wartime suffering is Max 44 See K. Ker6nyi, Goddesses of Sun and Moon, Dunquin Series
Beck-
mann's Prometheus (private collection, 1942), inspired by his son 11, Dallas, 1987, trans. M. Stein, pp. 56-58.
Peter's account of the Russian front. 45 R. Hammacher, Paul Delvaux, Rotterdam, 1973, p. 136.
36 Trans. O. Kokoschka, Das schriftliche Werk, II: Vortrige, Auf-46 See W. F. Otto, The Homeric Gods: The Spiritual Significance
sitze, Essays zur Kunst, Hamburg, 1975, p. 319. of Greek Religion, Boston, 1964, trans. M. Hadas, p. 77; and Burkert,
37 Seymour Lipton's bronze Birds of Prometheus (1945), one of Religion, p. 148.
Greek
many primeval forms in conflict that he began to create during World 47 See M. Fagiolo dell'Arco, "De Chirico in Paris, 1911-1915," in
War II, also suggests impending doom, through the legendary eagle De Chirico, ed. W. Rubin, New York, 1982, p. 26.
that has multiplied and become a pessimistic metaphor of destruc-48 lbidem, p. 26. On the negative traits of Apollo, see esp. K.
tion. Ker6nyi, Apollon und Niobe, Munich-Vienna, 1980.
38 Ibidem, pp. 89-90. 49 See H. Deutsch, A Psychoanalytic Study of the Myth of Diony-
39 To Breton, the myth of Venus (Gradiva) revealed surreal love, sus and Apollo: Two Variants of the Son-Mother Relationship, Freud
corresponding to Freud's conception of myth as the expression of un- Anniversary Lecture Series, New York Psychoanalytic Institute, New
fulfilled desire; see A. Breton, L'Amour fou, Paris, 1937, p. 144. See York, 1969, p. 52.
also Chadwick, "The Love Myths," in Myth in Surrealist Painting, pp. Among the sources on Dionysos, see W. F. Otto, Dionysus: Myth
77-86; idem, "Masson's Gradiva: The Metamorphosis of a Surrealist and Cult, Bloomington, Ind., 1965, trans. R. B. Palmer; K. Ker6nyi, Der
Myth," The Art Bulletin LII (December 1970), p. 418; and idem, "Eros frdhe Dionysos, Oslo, 1961; idem, Dionysos: Archetypal Image of In-
or Thanatos." Similarly, Dali intended his Dream of Venus, created for destructible Life, Bollingen Series 65, vol. 2, Princeton, 1976, trans.
the New York World's Fair of 1939, as "a panorama of the unconscious R. Manheim; and Burkert, Greek Religion, pp. 161-67.
in three dimensions"; see R. Descharnes, Salvador Dali: The Work, the 50 Similarly, in Hans Hofmann's Bacchanale (Andr6 Emmerich
Man, New York, 1984, trans. E. R. Morse, p. 231. Ernst's poem was Gallery, New York, 1946), whirlpools of brilliant color and organic
published in Paramyths, Beverly Hills, 1949. On Aphrodite, see H. ovoid shapes suggest bodies moving in ecstasy. Celebrations of the
Herter, "Die UrsprOnge des Aphroditekultes," in Centre d'Etudes Su- ancient bacchanal may be homages to earlier works of art, e.g., Clau-
p6rieures Sp6cialis6 d'Histoire des Religions, ElIments orientaux dio Bravo's Bacchanal (Marlborough Gallery, New York, 1981), based
dans la religion grecque ancienne, colloque de Strasbourg, 22-24 mai on Titian's Este Bacchanals.
1958, Paris, 1960, pp. 61 -76; D. D. Boedeker, Aphrodite's Entry into 51 See N. O. Brown, "Apollo and Dionysus," Life Against
Greek Epic, Leiden, 1974; P. Friedrich, The Meaning of Aphrodite, The Psychoanalytical Meaning of History, 2d ed., Middletown,
Chicago, 1978; and Burkert, Greek Religion, pp. 152-56. 1985, pp. 157-76.
40 See N. Dimitrijevic, "Sculpture After Revolution," Flash Art 52 For Nietzsche's discussion of primordial oneness, see The Birth
CXVII (April/May 1984), p. 30. On Pistoletto's work, see also G. of Tragedy, p. 74. See also M. S. Silk, J. P. Stern, Nietzsche on Tragedy,
Celant, ed., Pistoletto, Florence, 1984, p. 64, fig. 55. With a more for- Cambridge, 1981, pp. 175-78, 180. On de Chirico, see Fagiolo dell'Ar-
malistic interest in repetition, Michael Snow demystifies the unique- co, "De Chirico in Paris," p. 32.
ness of the goddess as he modernizes her in Venus Simultaneous (Art 53 J.-P. Sartre, Situations, Paris, 1964, IV, 405-06; from idem,
Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, 1962), part of his "Walking Woman" series "Andr6 Masson," in Vingt-deux dessins sur le thbme du d6sir, Nice,
(1961-67). George Segal's Venus Gesture (Sidney Janis Gallery, New 1961.
York, 1986) is based on the MediciAphrodite. See also Matilsky, Clas- 54 See Masson, Vagabond du surrdalisme, p. 138.
sical Myth and Imagery, pp. 10-15. 55 lbidem, p. 145. Another Surrealist treatment of the theme is
41 P. Schneider, Matisse, New York, 1984, offers the fullest expo- found in Dali's designs of costumes and sets, inspired by the hallucina-
sition of Matisse's evocation of the Golden Age as an era of purity and tions of Ludwig II of Bavaria, for L6onide Massine's Bacchanale (1939).
innocence. See also Matisse's collage Venus (National Gallery of Art, Dali's subtitle - "the first paranoic performance" -points up the Freu-
Washington, D.C., 1952). Albert E. Elsen, The Sculpture of Henri dian tinge to the mythological symbolism. See Chadwick, Myth in Sur-
Matisse, New York, 1972, p. 197, indicates that an earlier version of realist Painting, pp. 49-60, on Bacchus; and for Dali's "paranoiac-
Venus in a Shell was inspired by Matisse's lithograph of Night (1924), critical method," pp. 61-73.
an explicit reworking of Michelangelo's figure for the Medici Chapel. 56 Translation of A. Masson, Le Rdbelle du surrdalisme: 6crits, ed.
Like Matisse's sculptures, Cy Twombly's images of the Birth of Venus F. Will-Levaillant, Paris, 1976, p. 73.
(two drawings of 1962 [private collections, Rome], and a painting of 57 See T. B. Hess, Barnett Newman, New York, 1971, p. 82.
1963 [private collection, Germany]) seem to have been conceived in- 58 I lbidem, pp. 41-43.
dependently of Botticelli's famous painting. On the other hand, many 59 See D. Ashton, About Rothko, New York, 1983, pp. 25, 37.
modern, generally whimsical interpretations of the subject specifical- 60 lbidem. See also R. Hobbs, G. Levin, Abstract Expressionism:
ly refer to the Renaissance, e.g., Carlo Carro's images of the Birth of Ve- The Formative Years, Ithaca, N.Y., 1978, p. 120.
nus (a drawing of 1918 and an etching of 1920); Delvaux's Birth of Ve- 61 Among the writings on Orpheus, see R. B6hme, Orpheus: der
nus (private collection, Belgium, 1947); and Robert Rauschenberg's Singer und seine Zeit, Bern, 1970; J. Coman, Orphde: civilisateur de
ceramics Drawing Room l and II (Leo Castelli Gallery, New York, 1982). I'humanitd, Paris, 1939; W. K. C. Guthrie, Orpheus and Greek Religion,
42 Of his Venus de Milo with Drawers (private collection, 1936), New York, 1966; K. Ker6nyi, Pythagoras und Orpheus: Prdludien zu
Dali said, "This sculpture could cure us of psychoanalysis"; see einerzukinftigen Geschichte der Orphik und des Pythagoreismus, 3d
181
JUDITH E. BERNSTOCK
ed., Zurich, 1950; idem, Orpheus und Eurydike, Munich, 1963; and I.
solving the riddle), representing the ritual of an individual's coming of
M. Linforth, The Arts of Orpheus, Berkeley-Los Angeles, 1941.age.
For a
more extensive discussion of this topic see J. Bernstock, Under the79 E. H. Gombrich, Oskar Kokoschka, New York, 1966, pp
Spell of Orpheus: The Persistence of a Myth in Twentieth-Century Art,
39-40.
Carbondale, Ill., 1991. 80 See J. Elderfield, Matisse in the Collection of the Museum of
62 See Noguchi, Noguchi, p. 131. Modern Art, New York, 1978, p. 141.
63 See Fagiolo dell'Arco, "De Chirico in Paris," pp. 26-28. 81 S. Gilbert, R. Ellmann, eds., Letters of James Joyce, 3 vols.,
64 Newman may also refer to the Surrealist focus on Orpheus's New York, 1966, II, 81.
entry into the world of the dead, equated with the artist's delving into 82 See H. de Almeida, Byron and Joyce Through Homer: "Don
the inner depths of his mind. Juan" and "Ulysses", New York, 1981, p. 63.
65 Vettor Pisani's "II Teatro a Coda" forms a bridge between the 83 Hess, Newman, p. 42.
two aspects of the Oedipus myth. Like his contemporaries, Pisani 84 See S. Lackner, Max Beckmann, New York, 1977, pp. 21, 39;
blends several traditions, including Rosicrucianism, Belgian sym- idem, Max Beckmann, New York, 1983, trans. L. Lackner, p. 80; and
bolism, and Freudian psycho-sexual imagery, as well as the themes of P. Selz, Max Beckmann, New York, 1964, p. 77.
the sphinx and incest, in a hermetic autobiographical image. See 85 P. Pucci, "Odysseus Polutropos": Intertextual Readings in the
Waldman, Italian Art Now, pp. 106-11. "Odyssey" and the "Iliad," Cornell Studies in Classical Philology 46,
66 See F. W. Fischer, Max Beckmann, London, 1973, p. 74. Ithaca, N.Y., 1987, pp. 127-28.
67 j. J. Bachofen, Myth, Religion, and Mother Right: Selected 86 For the major early source, see Euripides, The Cretans (Nova
Writings of Johann Jakob Bachofen, Bollingen Series 84, Princeton, Fragmenta Euripidea), Berlin, 1968, ed. Colinus Austin, pp. 78-82.
1967, trans. R. Manheim, pp. 181-82. 87 See Eliade, Ordealby Labyrinth, p. 185. For modern treatments
68 For example, see his two versions of Sphinx (De Menil Founda- of the labyrinth in art, see H. Kern, "Labyrinths: Tradition and Contem-
tion, Houston, 1922; Musee National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges porary Works," Artforum XIX, no. 9 (May 1981), pp. 60-68. Examples
Pompidou, Paris, 1929). of recent works based at least in part on the Minoan legend are Alice
69 See Chadwick, Myth in Surrealist Painting, pp. 19-25; and Aycock's Maze (formerly New Kingston, Pa., 1972); Gottlieb's
idem, "Eros or Thanatos," pp. 53-56. Labyrinth No. 1 (Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation, New York,
70 Bachofen, Myth, Religion, and Mother Right, p. 181. De Chiri- 1950); Richard Long's Connemara Sculpture (Ireland, 1971); Robert
co's first self-portrait, What ShallILove If Not the Enigma? (private col- Morris's Labyrinth (Collection of Dr. Panza di Buomo, Milan, 1974);
lection, 1911), reveals his early interest in melancholy and in the story and Joe Tilson's Earth Mazes (1975).
of Oedipus and the sphinx, with strong Nietzschean overtones. 88 On the Surrealists' interpretations of the legend, see esp.
71 Also noteworthy is Kokoschka's early play Sphinx und Stroh- Rubin, Masson, pp. 45-57. See also R. Magritte, "Le Fil d'Ariane,"
mann (1907). A female sphinx/destroyer of man appears in Dali's Ecrits complets, Paris, 1979, pp. 82-83. More recently, Chia com-
Shirley Temple, the Youngest Monster Sacred to the Cinema (Museum pared himself to Theseus in a cave-labyrinth, running after form on
Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 1939). canvas as if chasing a beast in a dream; see his letter of 20 February
72 In a characteristically modern conflation of mythological sym- 1983, in the artist's book Sandro Chia, Amsterdam, 1983.
bolism and historical references, the lion in Ernst's illustration alludes 89 See also G. Bataille, "Le Labyrinthe," Recherches philosop-
to a statue in Paris commemorating the siege of Belfort during the hiques V (1935-36), pp. 364-72.
Franco-Prussian War, compared with the siege of Thebes by the 90 For example, Masson's painting (Collection of Dr. and Mrs.
sphinx. Other images of Oedipus by Ernst include his bronze sculp- J. H. Hirschman, Glencoe, Ill., 1943) and pastel (The Museum of
tures Oedipus I and II of 1934. Modern Art, New York, 1945) of Pasiphad, and Pollock's painting of
73 See Kuspit, Golub, pp. 65-69. Pasiphad (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1943). See
74 See, in particular, Freud's General Introduction to Psychoanal- also Matisse's linoleum cuts for Henry de Montherlant's Pasipha6,
ysis and Jung's Symbols of Transformation. For an interesting recent chant de Minos, Paris, 1944.
interpretation of the signified and signifier in Oedipus Rex, see P Puc- 91 See J. F. Revel, "Minotaure," L'Oeil 89 (May 1962), pp. 66-79.
ci, "On the 'Eye' and the 'Phallos' and Other Permutabilities in Oedipus 92 See J. Golding, "Picasso and Surrealism," in R. Penrose, J.
Rex," in Arktouros: Hellenic Studies Presented to Bernard M. W Knox Golding, eds., Picasso in Retrospect, New York, 1973, pp. 117-19.
on the Occasion of His Sixty-Fifth Birthday, ed. G. W. Bowersock, W. 93 See W. Rubin, Dada and SurrealistArt, New York, 1968, p. 184.
Burkert, M. C. J. Putnam, Berlin, 1979, pp. 130-33. 94 Noguchi, Noguchi, p. 126. In 1941, Massine choreographed a
75 Gottlieb may have been inspired by American Surrealist writers ballet called Labyrinth about Theseus and Ariadne, at the suggestion
Parker Tyler, who regarded Oedipus as a tragic hero alienated from so- of Dali, who provided the sets.
ciety, and Hilary Arm ("Nostradamus Against the Gods: An Assertion 95 See Waldman, Italian Art Now, p. 110.
of the Active Principle of Prophecy," View I, nos. 9, 10 [December 96 The autobiographical element has also characterized images
1941-January 1942], p. 4-5), who described him as a mistreated of Daedalus in twentieth-century literature, e.g., James Joyce's Por-
seer of the truth. See MacNaughton, Gottlieb, pp. 34-39, for Gott- trait of the ArtistAs a Young Man and Ulysses (in the figure of Stephen
lieb's images of Oedipus. Related works by Gottlieb include Eyes of Dedalus).
Oedipus (private collection, 1941), and Hands of Oedipus (Adolph and 97 J. D. Flam, Matisse on Art, New York, 1978, p. 44. At one poin
Esther Gottlieb Foundation, New York, 1943). Orozco considered portraying the Daedalus myth in his 1932 frescoes
76 See Bloom, Sophocles' "Oedipus Rex," pp. 1-2. for Dartmouth College, New Hampshire.
77 See MacNaughton, Gottlieb, p. 36. 98 See M. Mathews Gedo, Picasso:Art as Autobiography, Chica-
78 Noguchi, Noguchi, p. 126. Eric Hawkins's contemporaneous go, 1980, p. 231. J. Sutherland Boggs, "The Last Thirty Years," in Pen
Strangler concentrated on the earlier part of the legend (Oedipus rose, Golding, Picasso in Retrospect, p. 214, describes it as "a cynic
182
and pessimistic mural to have painted for an organization with the

as well as the possibility that his Labyrinths of the 1970s (see n.
hopes of UNESCO in the 1950s." P. Patton, "Robert Morris and theabove)
Fire may refer to the ancient myth.
Next Time," Art News LXXXII, no. 10 (December 1983), p. 91, discuss- 99 J. Ernst, A Not-So-Still Life: A Memoir, New York, 1984, p
es Morris's preoccupation with the themes of Icarus and time/death,
77-78.
183

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Classical Mythology in Twentieth-Century Art: An Overview of a Humanistic Approach

Author(s): Judith E. Bernstock

Classical Mythology in Twentieth-Century Art: An Over

Background An investigation into the dualistic and often ambivalen

1) Anselm Kiefer, (lIcarus, March Sand), Saatchi Collection, London.

the Rape of Persephone and Theseus Slaying the Minotaur), to

holocaust that would exterminate all that is human and dear

Twentieth-century artists generally revive ancient myths

The Return to Origins

Modern artists have turned to classical m

works show the impact of Freud, despite the preponderance of

cluded Georges Bataille, Georges Limbour, and Michel Leiris.

I cannot grant you that mythology is only the recital of t

Breton's prediction that myth would be the subject of a new art

5) Jos6 Clemente Orozco, ((Prometheus)), Pomona College, C

Orestes, emulated ancient artists because Castelli they portrayed

durance, and achievements of mankind. This view of him ac-

individual's fight against oppression, and the (artist's) attain-

plaster version), Philadelphia Museum of Art (Lisa Norris

Milo" of 1949. The destructiveness of the tyrannical imposi-

10) Alexander Liberman, ((Aphrodite II,, Andre Emmerich Galler

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London) [Fig. 11], in which he intended "to symbol express anguish

Denkend sehen* Sehend denken

Leitung: Helmut Br6ker

. .. , . . . . ,. .". Kunst heute /Eindriicke, Gegeben-

Versuch einer nachtraglichen Auf-

" * " " . i' , ,."f

goddesses (dark rulers of the world and representatives of

States was gaining momentum--a statement about modern

darkness and mortality, especially after his stroke in 1911,

We as artists can paradoxically reject the Grecian form -

mutilated figures referring to the dismemberment of Bacchus,

quence of his weak and flawed character. When Noguchi

On the other hand, because of Orpheus's extraordinary

17) Max Beckmann, (uRemoval of the Sphinxes), Kunsthalle, Hamburg.

artists like Lipchitz, in his Joy of Orpheus bronze of the king.65

various portrayals of the myth in the 1920s, like most modern

Many twentieth-century artists have identified them-

I loved my Odyssey and while drawing the pictures felt per-

In Matisse's illustrations for a 1935 American edition of

Greek tragedy constantly revolves around the sense of

the fundamental solitude of man. Because de Chirico's family

The Cretan Saga

The legend of the Minotaur has appealed to twentieth-

focused on the theme of self-interrogation in works based on

lar* ?IICwl '~

"ls~: ZI~~I ~1I~~11~1 -JI~ I I 1 II'

ji? ~71rl IrR

oz: I?~ji ~ 8c~

24) Jimmy Ernst, <<(Icarus)), Co

visual and Melamid's above-mentioned

a white skeleton plunging into the sea near Cannes, Picasso's

and pessimistic mural to have painted for an organization with the

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