The Female Figure

A study of the female figure is seen in many Renaissance works, and those with a mythological subject are no different. There are several different goddesses and other women of myths that are depicted in a very different style than other mythological scenes. The three women in these paintings are Venus, goddess of love, Ceres, goddess of the harvest, and Danae, who tricked her father to be impregnated by Jupiter. All of the woman are seen laying down, and are all the primary figure in the work. Because they mostly do not depict a specific recognizable scene (Danae being somewhat of an exception), the symbols surrounding each woman are very important for identifying them. The goddess Ceres is surrounded by plants and wheat, and the goddess Venus holds a bouquet of roses. Danae is seen with the coins that represent Jupiter, and the figure of Cupid. All of these works focus more on the female figure and include less movement than many other paintings with mythological subjects.