Revivals of an Ancient Myth in Modern Art: Oedipus and the Episode of the Sphinx. From Jean Auguste-Domenique Ingres to Michael Merck
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Rosanna Lauriola
Abstract
In line with the increasing research on reception of Classical works, this article discusses a new rendition in painting, by the emerging artist M. Merck, of the famous episode of the encounter between Oedipus and the Sphinx. The discussion is conducted though a comparative analysis with the artifacts of those painters that worked as a model, namely: Ingres, Moreau, and Bacon. The general interpretation of the episode in art as representation of the superiority and victory of Oedipus' intelligence over a brutal monster is the one that usually applies to the paintings of Merck's predecessors. This interpretation has generally overshadowed the essential feature of the episode, the one that contributes to the tragic of Oedipus' story: the irony. Appropriating and re-elaborating motifs of his predecessors, by visualizing the English colloquialism “to shoot oneself in the foot”, Merck has been able to summarize, and grasp, the essential traits of the entire tragic life of Oedipus as centering on his encounter with the Sphinx.
© Walter de Gruyter 2011
Articles in the same Issue
- The Iliad's big swoon: a case of innovation within the epic tradition?
- Apollo and the Ion of Euripides: nothing to do with Nietzsche?
- The Dream of the Charioteer in the Rhesus ascribed to Euripides (728–803)
- Trojan Glory: kleos and the survival of Troy in Lycophron's Alexandra
- A Passage to Egypt: Aesop, the Priests of Heliopolis and the Riddle of the Year (Vita Aesopi 119–120)
- From impulsiveness to self-restraint: Lucius' stance in Apuleius' Metamorphoses
- Back to the backstage: the papyrus P.Berol. 13927
- Revivals of an Ancient Myth in Modern Art: Oedipus and the Episode of the Sphinx. From Jean Auguste-Domenique Ingres to Michael Merck
- List of Contributors
Articles in the same Issue
- The Iliad's big swoon: a case of innovation within the epic tradition?
- Apollo and the Ion of Euripides: nothing to do with Nietzsche?
- The Dream of the Charioteer in the Rhesus ascribed to Euripides (728–803)
- Trojan Glory: kleos and the survival of Troy in Lycophron's Alexandra
- A Passage to Egypt: Aesop, the Priests of Heliopolis and the Riddle of the Year (Vita Aesopi 119–120)
- From impulsiveness to self-restraint: Lucius' stance in Apuleius' Metamorphoses
- Back to the backstage: the papyrus P.Berol. 13927
- Revivals of an Ancient Myth in Modern Art: Oedipus and the Episode of the Sphinx. From Jean Auguste-Domenique Ingres to Michael Merck
- List of Contributors
