Gods and Heroes: European Drawings of Classical Mythology

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS

"Diomedes Devoured by Horses" (1866) by Gustave Moreau

CALIFORNIA---Featuring a selection of close to 40 drawings dating from the Renaissance to the 19th century, "Gods and Heroes: European Drawings of Classical Mythology," opens on November 19 at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Getty Center. The exhibition explores the pictorial representation of myths that have been instrumental in the formation of Western culture. The stories involving the mythical gods and heroes of Greco-Roman antiquity have inspired artists for centuries, testing their abilities to represent complex narratives in visual form. The world of gods and heroes could also be a violent one, and drawings such as Gustave Moreau's representation one of Hercules’s labors, when the hero had to capture the flesh-eating mares of Diomedes, the evil king of Thrace. Hercules, having succeeded in seizing the animals, feeds Diomedes’s body to his own horses.

J. Paul Getty Museum, Getty Center: "Gods and Heroes: European Drawings of Classical Mythology"; (November 19, 2013–February 9, 2014); 1200 Getty Center Drive, Los Angeles, CA; (310)440-7330; getty.edu