LIFE AS MYTH
A FEMININE MYTH
Hsi Wang Mu, goddess of immortality
The girl with the peaches: portrait of Vera Mamontova (Valentin Serov)
Carnation Lily, Lily Rose (John Singer Sargent)
The mermaid at Clonfert Cathedral
Olympia (Édouard Manet)
WINTER 2007
THE BIRTH OF VENUS
Throughout the ages, stories with certain basic themes have recurred over and over, in widely disparate cultures; emerging like the goddess Venus from the sea of our unconscious.
Joan Vinge (b. 1948), writerAccording to Roman mythology, Venus is the Roman goddess of love, fertility and beauty. The castration of her father Uranus by her brother Cronus fertilized the ocean and from the fertile waters Venus arose. Artistic interpretations of her birth do not typically depict the actual birth but the moment when Venus arrives at the shores of Paphos (Cyprus) in a shell.
Notes
Between 1910-1912 Redon created six different versions of The Birth of Venus. [from top] The Birth of Venus. 1910. Private Collection; The birth of Venus. 1912. Museum of Modern Art, New York City; The birth of Venus. 1912. Musée du Petit Palais, Paris.
