King Candaules
Artist
Jean-Léon Gérôme
(French, 1824-1904)
Date1859
Object number63.0353
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensions26 1/4 x 39 1/2 in. (66.7 x 100.3 cm)
frame: 40 1/2 x 53 7/8 x 4 1/4 in. (102.9 x 136.8 x 10.8 cm)
frame: 40 1/2 x 53 7/8 x 4 1/4 in. (102.9 x 136.8 x 10.8 cm)
ClassificationsPainting
Credit LineMuseo de Arte de Ponce. The Luis A. Ferré Foundation, Inc.
Collections
Description"King Candaules," presented at the Paris Salon in 1859, was inspired by an 1844 story by Théophile Gautier, in which he reinterprets the legend of King Candaules of Lydia in Asia Minor, as narrated by the Greek historian Herodotus. In the story, the king, who was proud of his wife Rhodope’s beauty, betrays her by allowing the guard Gyges to observe her naked without her consent. Rhodope, discovering the offense as Gyges leaves the room, offers him two options: either to kill the king and take the throne and marry her, or to die. Gyges opts for the former and becomes the new king. Gérôme depicts Candaules lying in bed, his gaze directed not toward his wife but toward Gyges, who appears in shadow in the doorway at the far right, dramatically contrasting with the figure of the queen at the center, illuminated as if by a spotlight.
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