the torment of aglauros (triptych)
2014
oil and acrylic on canvas
three panels, each panel 80 x 60 cm
The Story
(scroll down for The Artwork)
The work describes three scenes in Ovid's cautionary tale about the perils of envy in Metamorphoses, 2 II. 711 - 832.
In the left panel the winged god Mercury is seen twice: first - in Ovid's simile - as a kite, hovering opportunistically above a religious ceremony as it performs a blood sacrifice far below. The second image of Mercury has him “dressed to impress” as he approaches the family home of the young Herse. Her beauty had caught the god's attention earlier as he flew across Athens. Herse is seen here alone in her room.
With seduction on his mind the radiant Mercury makes his way to Herse's room. Finding her sister Aglauros in his path he asks for her help in his enterprise. Unimpressed by the honour of having assited a divine seduction, Aglauros instead demands gold up front for her trouble.
The egregiousness of Aglauros's greed catches the attention of Minerva. The goddess of wisdom and patron of Athens is disgusted and is reminded of a previous case when Aglauros's avarice had cost Minerva dear. Aglauros is to be punished.
Minerva instructs the god of Envy to torment Aglauros with a resentment that is never-ending and slow-burning “as if fire were laid beneath thornbushes, which produce no flames but are consumed by smouldering embers.” This image is the subject of the centre panel.
Meanwhile the seduction of Herse is well under way with Mercury now a regular, unimpeded visitor to Herse's chamber. Aglauros' resentment of what she sees as her sister's good fortune is all-consuming. In a final act of despair she stands between Mercury and the entrance to her sister's bedroom. Driven mad with envy Aglauros swears that she will not move from the spot until and unless Mercury abandons his seduction. Amused rather than threatened the god of athletes, boundaries and eloquence (among other things) obliges Aglauros by turning her to stone on the spot.
The Artwork
The leitmotif of the triptych is flesh and deformity. In the left panel, Mercury is seen as a kite, in Ovid's simile, hovering above while a religious ceremony performs a blood sacrifice. The second image of lustful Mercury, en route to seduce the maiden Herse, is as a figure composed entirels of raw flesh. Herse, too, is a figure composed of incomplete body parts. In the second panel Envy has wrapped himself around the two-faced figure of Aglauros, her resentment smouldering flamelessly through her racked body.
The third panel shows the door to Herse's bedroom flung open as the smooth-talking, devious athlete launches himself at Herse, having turned her tragic-comic sister Aglauros to stone. The image of Mercury was inspired by a news story around the time the work was painted.
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