Danaë and the Shower of Gold

1560–65

Oil on canvas, 129.8 × 181.2 cm · Museo del Prado, Madrid

A new, horizontal version of the Danaë Titian had sent Philip II in 1553, painted with looser handling. The Prado’s catalogue thinks it was made for a private patron who knew Titian, not for the king.

The old nurse catching the gold in her apron sets youth against age, nude against clothed.
Gold pours from the cloud like falling coins.
A small dog on the bed is read by the Prado as a hint of lust.
Kept from 1827 in a restricted room of Madrid’s Academy of San Fernando.

King Acrisius locked his daughter Danaë away after an oracle said her son would kill him. Zeus reached her as a shower of gold, and she bore the hero Perseus.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · Public domain