Jupiter and Semele

Title

Jupiter and Semele

Original title

Jupiter et Sémélé

Maker

Gustave Moreau

Nationality, dates

French, 1826–1898

Date

1889–1895 (first sketch dated 1889; delivered 1895)

Medium

Oil on canvas

Size

212 × 118 cm (about 83.5 × 46.5 in)

Commission

Commissioned by Leopold Goldschmidt and delivered to him in 1895. He gave it to its present collection in 1903.

Text

Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book III, lines 253–315

Figures

Jupiter and Semele; Death and Sorrow at the foot of the throne; Jupiter’s eagle; Pan; Hecate and two sphinxes at the base

Inventory no.

Cat. 91

Held by

Musée national Gustave Moreau, Paris (Cat. 91). Not affiliated with or endorsed by the Musée national Gustave Moreau.

Rights

Public domain. Image source: Wikimedia Commons, “Jupiter and Semele by Gustave Moreau (cropped).jpg”, photograph by René-Gabriel Ojéda, from the Joconde database (record 50410004307).

The story comes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Book III. Semele, a daughter of Cadmus, the founder of Thebes, is pregnant by Jupiter. His wife Juno comes to her disguised as Beroë, Semele’s old nurse, and makes her doubt that her lover is really a god. So Semele asks Jupiter for a gift, and he swears by the river Styx to grant it before he knows what it is. She wants him to come to her as he comes to Juno. He cannot take back his oath. He chooses a lighter thunderbolt, and her mortal body still burns.

The first sketch for Gustave Moreau’s painting is dated 1889. Leopold Goldschmidt commissioned it, and Moreau delivered it in 1895, three years before his death. He painted Jupiter beardless and put a lyre in his hands, the usual attribute of Apollo or Orpheus, so the king of the gods appears as a poet. Wide-eyed, he stares straight ahead, past the woman dying across his thigh. At the foot of the throne Moreau placed Death and Sorrow. In his words, they “form the tragic basis of human life.”

In Ovid’s telling, the unborn child is taken from Semele’s body and sewn into Jupiter’s thigh until he is ready to be born. The child is Bacchus, god of wine. Just below Semele, Moreau painted a small winged figure that hides its eyes. He called it the genius of terrestrial love. It is sometimes identified as Bacchus.

corpus mortale tumultus / non tulit aetherios donisque iugalibus arsit

Her mortal body could not bear the uproar of heaven, and she burned with her wedding gift.

Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book III, lines 308–309

• Woven blanket, 100% cotton, with colorful fringed edges
• Three sizes: 52 × 37 in (132 × 94 cm), 60 × 50 in (152 × 127 cm), 80 × 60 in (203 × 152 cm)
• Size tolerance ±2.5 in (about 6 cm)
• Hang it as a wall tapestry (hanging hardware not included), or use it on a sofa or bed
• Woven threads soften fine linework; colors and texture differ slightly from the screen image
• Catalogue N° 011 · The Noha Studio

• Machine wash cold, max 30°C / 86°F
• Gentle cycle, mild detergent
• Non-chlorine bleach only if needed
• Tumble dry low

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