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Jupiter and Semele

Oil on canvas (1894–1895) by Gustave Moreau. Jupiter reveals his divine nature to the mortal princess Semele, who is consumed by divine fire. The largest and most complex of Moreau's paintings, a Symbolist cosmological vision of overwhelming density. Held at the Musée Gustave Moreau, Paris.

Scholarly Significance

Anchor Gustave Moreau's Symbolist mythology with Jupiter and Semele, the summa of his jewel-encrusted cosmological vision.

Notes

  • ·The largest painting in the Musée Gustave Moreau.
  • ·Moreau worked on the composition for years; surviving studies show the development of the iconographic programme.
  • ·The enthroned Jupiter is surrounded by an intricate cosmological hierarchy: deities, allegorical figures, symbolic animals.
  • ·Bequeathed to the state with the entire Musée Gustave Moreau collection in 1898.
  • ·The painting is central to understanding Moreau's influence on his students, including Matisse, who encountered it in the atelier.