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Lot Essay
After being abandoned on a mountain top by her father, Schoeneus, Atalanta entered into the protection of the virgin huntress, Diana, and was then raised by a group of hunters. Her story began when she was selected by Meleager as one of his heroes to hunt down the Calydonian Boar. As in so many great myths of this type the male hero fell in love with the beautiful maiden, overcame massive adversity, killed to protect his loved one and was then tragically killed by jealous rivals - in this instance, his mother.
Grief-stricken, Atalanta sought out her father for sympathy, who, upon claiming her as his legitimate daughter, attempted to marry her off. Feeling that marriage would be a betrayal to Meleager, Atalanta made a deal with her father that she would only marry the man who could beat her in a foot race, with the suitor being put to death if he lost. Suitor after suitor fell victim to this horrible fate until Hippomenes appeared, took up the challenge and won the race by dropping three golden apples given to him by Venus.
The scene where Hippomenes drops the apples and Atalanta stops to collect them has been depicted by numerous painters, but it was most famously depicted in the painting by Guido Reni in circa 1612 now in the Museo del Prado, Madrid. Sculpturally, the same scene was immortalised in marble with the marriage of Pierre Lepautre's (1704) marble figure of Atalanta and Guillaume Coustou's (1712) marble figure of Hippomenes, now the Louvre, Paris. The present bronze of Atalanta is a reduced contemporary bronze version of Coustou's original conception.
Grief-stricken, Atalanta sought out her father for sympathy, who, upon claiming her as his legitimate daughter, attempted to marry her off. Feeling that marriage would be a betrayal to Meleager, Atalanta made a deal with her father that she would only marry the man who could beat her in a foot race, with the suitor being put to death if he lost. Suitor after suitor fell victim to this horrible fate until Hippomenes appeared, took up the challenge and won the race by dropping three golden apples given to him by Venus.
The scene where Hippomenes drops the apples and Atalanta stops to collect them has been depicted by numerous painters, but it was most famously depicted in the painting by Guido Reni in circa 1612 now in the Museo del Prado, Madrid. Sculpturally, the same scene was immortalised in marble with the marriage of Pierre Lepautre's (1704) marble figure of Atalanta and Guillaume Coustou's (1712) marble figure of Hippomenes, now the Louvre, Paris. The present bronze of Atalanta is a reduced contemporary bronze version of Coustou's original conception.