Art & Culture: Exaltation of Beauty

Siemiradzki thoroughly studied the "world of things" of Alexander the Great's time, probably aided by visits to the Hermitage and the Public Library. On his canvas, he accurately depicted antique fabrics, garments, footwear, and armour worn by warriors, as well as ornaments on carpets, and a black-figure vase placed on a table. The exoticism of the Persian campaign is reflected in the oriental opal held by the boy and the tiger skin spread on the bed. At the right edge of the canvas is a statue, at the very top of which is a bronze sculpture of the goddess Nike with a laurel wreath. The painting was created as a result of a theme proposed as part of a competition at the Imperial Academy of Arts in early 1870. In the autumn of the same year, the works of Siemiradzki and his competitors were completed and exhibited at the academic exhibition held in St Petersburg. The results of the competition were announced in November 1870, where Siemiradzki was declared the winner and awarded gold medal of the first merit.

Idun and the Apples, 1890, by J. Doyle Penrose A painting portraying the Norse goddess of fertility Idunn giving apples to gods. Idunn was a goddess who was a guardian of the fruit (usually given as apples) that kept the gods of Asgard eternally young. For this reason, she was kidnapped by a giant named Þjazi who desired the eternal youth of gods. When she was kidnapped, the gods began to age and her rescue from the realm of Jotunheim (the location of giants) was of the utmost importance. Finally, she was released by the trickster Loki. From that time gods could enjoy youth till the times of the Ragnarök.

Mountain landscape, by Anton Altmann