Portrait of Mlle. Lange as Danae

Portrait of Mlle. Lange as Danaë
Mademoiselle Lange as Danaë
Artist	Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson
Year	1799
Medium	oil paint, canvas
Subject	Anne Françoise Elisabeth Lange
Dimensions	60.33 cm (23.75 in) × 48.58 cm (19.13 in)
Location	Minneapolis Institute of Art
Accession No.	69.22
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The Portrait of M^lle Lange as Danaë is a painting by French painter Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson. It depicts the actress Anne Françoise Elisabeth Lange as Danaë.

The revision made by Girodet had to be withdrawn after being on display for just 2 days at the Paris Salon of 1799.^[1][2]

It is now part of the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

History[]

The artist Girodet and Miss Lange first crossed paths in the Salon of 1793. Girodet, a student of Jacques-Louis David would gain notoriety for his submission Endymion. In 1793, Miss Lange was already a prominent actress and a sociétaire of the Comédie-Française. Six years later (1798), as a gift to her newlywed husband, Michel-Jean Simons, Madame Simons commissioned a portrait from Girodet,^[3] who painted the actress as the Roman goddess Venus. Miss Lange disliked the painting so much that in a letter written to the artist, she requested that he remove the painting from the Paris Salon and even refused to pay her dues for the commission. Further, she wrote that his work compromised not only her reputation for beauty but his own as an up-and-coming artist.

Furious, the 32-year old Girodet began work on a new painting of M^lle Lange in the guise of Danae. The painting is deliberately encoded with hidden details about her intimate life, in an effort to defame her. On August 2, 1799,^[4] Girodet exacted his revenge. He replaced Venus at the exhibition with the new depiction of Mlle. Lange as Danae, which he completed in two weeks.^[5]

Symbolism[]

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Miss Lange is depicted gathering gold pieces in a sheet. This common scene from the shower of gold episode associated with Danae was used by Girodet to portray M^lle Lange as a greedy person. The winged putto helping her collect gold coins is Palmyre, her daughter from an affair with a banker. She is accompanied by a turkey bearing a wedding ring on its foot. This symbolizes the husband, Simons. There is an infant, representing the son, gathering peacock feathers that are growing from the turkey. The mother and the children have been adorned with headdresses fashioned out of peacock feathers.^[6]

Two white doves are bound to a scale, each bearing a Latin inscription. An allusion to adultery (Latin: fidelitas) is found around the neck of the bird that has been crushed to death by one of the gold coins. The other (Latin: constantia) is written around the neck of the bird that gotten away, suggesting once more that her character is unsteady.

In the background, a statue of Abundantia is dimly lit by a small fire that has drawn moths. At the base of the statue is yet another Latin expression (Latin: bonæ spei et. laribus sacrum).

Additionally, the four corners of the frame have been decorated with ornate cameo reliefs, each bearing Latin phrases or mottos:^[7]

• 

  Mermaid, or a fish-tailed woman gazing into a mirror.

• 

  Creature with a rabbit rider.

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  Gold coins in a treasure box, drawing moths. Shown with a vase of flowers.

• 

  Ox, with reference to La Fontaine's version of Aesop's fable The Frog and the Ox^[9]

Miss Lange, removed from her pedestal, is now seated on a bedsheet of olive persuasion. This is related to the grotesque male figure, called a satyr by some scholars, depicted in the shadowy area below Danae's seat. It is crowned by vine leaves in the likeness of a winemaker named Leuthrop Beauregard. A snail rests upon one of its leaves.^[10] The grimacing face has a gold coin lodged into its right eye socket, and is seen licking its lips. Beauregard is said to have paid a lot amount of money for half a day's worth of her time.^[11]

On the floor, a scroll of the play ASINARIA COMŒDIA as per PLAVTI is set ablaze upon her sandal.

Her mirror, now broken and producing no reflection is an attribute of Vanitas used together with the mermaid.^[12]

Impact[]

Although Danae was exhibited for just a few days, it was demonstrated at the Louvre during the height of the French Directory. Wishing to be forgotten, Miss Lange left France for Italy, where she found a new foothold. Some years later, she returned to France to visit and see how the city had changed. There, she saw a print after Girodet's Danae, to which she remarked (French: Ce portrait me fera mourir de chagrin) that the painting would make her die of grief. Miss Lange remained in Florence until her death in 1816.^[13]

Girodet himself later expressed remorse over creating the painting, and refused to show it to friends.^[5]

Gallery[]

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  Venus, original 1798 painting

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  Girodet hangs up the new Danae at art exhibit. Art by Thomas Charles Naudet.

• 

  With frame

Some sources state that Venus shown above was cut up into four pieces by Girodet and delivered to Simons. This leaves open the question of the authenticity of the portrait. Is it a reproduction after a print? It apparently belongs to the collection of MdbK, the fine arts museum in Leipzig.

See also[]

• Scandals in art#18th century

References[]