La Danaé de Jan Gossaert (1527) : entre courtisane vénale et Vierge élue
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the ovidian story of Jupiter and Danae became one of the most popular mythological subjects for artists of the time. The first major work of the Renaissance illustrating this scene, entitled Danae, dating from 1527, is attributed to the Flemish artist Jan Gossaert. While researchers agree that, from the sixteenth century onwards, the character of Danae was chosen by artists as a model of the courtesan, the version by Gossaert still remains a source of disagreement between them. The different readings of the painting establish iconographic similarities, on the one hand with the Virgin of the Annunciation and, on the other, with the courtesans of the Renaissance. My thesis focuses on these two paradoxical positions without rejecting one or the other in order to rethink the painting from a new angle.
Renaissance Profane Jan Gossaert Danae Mythology Renaissance Sacred Profane Jan Gossaert