

Kauffman was popular with contemporary art collectors, and executed portraits of many rulers and of such luminaries as Goethe, the great German writer. She was elected to the Royal Academy in 1768, and also to several Italian academies. Swiss by birth, she was trained in Italy, the country she always loved and where she felt most at home, and became famous in England, where she spent fifteen years of her life. Of the rich finds the excavations brought to light, Kauffman was most influenced by the frescoes, the painted decorations on the walls of the ancient villas, which were made known to the public through engravings and were avidly studied by artists.Īngelica Kauffman was a truly international painter. In painting, the Neoclassical movement was inspired by the excavations in Italy that began in the middle of the eighteenth century. Neoclassicism was a movement in art and other fields that looked to the ancient world for inspiration in subject and style. The spirit of this picture is classical, but its execution reveals a sense of grace and refinement typical of the late 18 th century. The clear colors, especially the warm reds and greens, are reminiscent of frescoes from Roman villas at Pompeii that Kauffman would have known through her associations with the court at Naples. The clothing, the jewel box, and the pillows are all based on ancient models. Many features of this painting recall works of art from ancient Rome. Kauffman developed a smooth and elegant style that was both modern in spirit and popular with art collectors. Dionysus, the god of wine, soon rescued Ariadne and fell in love with her. They stopped at the island of Naxos, where Theseus deserted Ariadne. After Ariadne helped Theseus kill the beast and find his way out of the maze, the two escaped from Crete and journeyed back to Athens. Through this gesture and the droop of her head, Angelica Kauffman conveys Ariadne’s feelings, which are reinforced by the gloomy landscape.Īriadne fell in love with Theseus when he had come to Crete to kill the Minotaur, a terrible half-man, half-bull kept at the center of the Labyrinth, a winding maze. Instead, as her dramatic gesture indicates, she is overcome by her turbulent emotions.

She is hardly consoled by the chest of jewels that Theseus left for her.

In this painting, Ariadne laments her fate after the Greek hero Theseus abandoned her on Naxos.
