218:. Oedipus must answer the Sphinx's riddle correctly in order to pass. Failure means his own death and that of the besieged Thebans. The riddle was: "What walks on four feet in the morning, two in the afternoon and three at night?". Oedipus answered: "Man: as an infant, he crawls on all fours; as an adult, he walks on two legs and; in old age, he uses a walking stick". Oedipus was the first to answer the riddle correctly and, having heard Oedipus' answer, the Sphinx was astounded and inexplicably killed herself by throwing herself into the sea. Oedipus thereby won the freedom of the Thebans, the kingdom of that city, and as his wife,
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Unlike Ingres' version where
Oedipus appears as the dominant figure with the Sphinx on the defensive and partly obscured, in Moreau's version the Sphinx is on the offensive, clawing at Oedipus whose victory in the encounter does not yet seem assured. Indeed, other works by Moreau often feature
335:, obscure and unknown yesterday, and who will be famous tomorrow". It rescued what was otherwise seen as a mediocre show. One critic commented, "Mr. Gustave Moreau is the hero of this Exhibition and the grumblers proclaim that if the Salon of 1864 is retrieved from discredit, it is thanks to
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had been published in 1863, the year before the work was painted. Dorra also draws attention to the symbolic meaning of some of the elements in the picture, which could have autobiographical aspects, and the possible derivation of the treatment of the subject from the design of a
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The intense gaze shared between the two has been seen as characteristic of Moreau "who again and again suggests an ambiguous mirror-image, two aspects, two abstract entities that confront each other and recognize each other all too well".
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Another critic observed that a Greek sphinx, half-woman and half-vulture, was shown, rather than an
Egyptian seated sphinx, but felt that whereas Ingres had presented a modern Oedipus, Moreau had better interpreted the classical Oedipus.
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interpretation, it has been argued that the Sphinx represents the castrating effect of Moreau's mother that he has been seeking to escape. At the time the painting was created, Moreau's father had recently died.
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has suggested that the poses of the sphinx and
Oedipus are derived from the Greek etymological meaning of the word sphinx, which is to clutch, embrace, or cling to. Dorra notes that a paper on the subject by
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After the Salon, Moreau quickly gained a reputation for eccentricity. One commentator said Moreau's work was "like a pastiche of
Mantegna created by a German student who relaxes from his painting by reading
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605:"Old Noll". "Des tendances de l'art contemporain, à l'occasion de l'Exposition des beaux-arts de 1864." Annales de la charité (Revue d'économie chrétienne) 6 (May 1864), pp. 883–902.
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in vogue in mid nineteenth century France, instead adopting a deliberately archaic painting style and mythological subject matter. Moreau had sketched
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has argued that the subject depicts not only the battle between good and evil, but also between the sexes, and that the opening poem of
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in Paris and that is a likely source for his version of the story. Ingres also painted a later version (c. 1826) which is now in the
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of Moreau's "devotion to the old masters, and the knowledge and application of sound principles and traditions. The painter of
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On his death, Moreau left all of his extant paintings to the French nation where they formed the basis for the subsequent
392:, who had a reputation as a discerning connoisseur, and paid a full 8000 francs for the work. It was then sold in 1868 to
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warned that Moreau should extricate himself from the "harsh embrace" of
Mantegna in order to realise his full potential.
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This article is about a painting by
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that was first exhibited at the French Salon of 1864 where it was an immediate success. It is now in the
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was the source for the idea of the painting. In that poem the Sphinx triumphs over
Oedipus. In a
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The Mythic
Feminine in Symbolist Art: Idealism and Mysticism in Fin-de-Siecle Painting
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Gustave Moreau: Complete
Edition of the Finished Paintings, Watercolours and Drawings
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The only serious criticism levelled at the work was that its figures might have been
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commented that it was drawn like a Mantegna but as poetic as a Leonardo da Vinci.
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in 1920 where it is one of the few important Moreau paintings outside France.
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Tinterow, Gary. Compiled with Susan Alyson Stein & Barbara Burn. (1993).
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The painting was an immediate success at the Salon. E. de Sault wrote in the
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Exh. cat. New York: Museum of Modern Art, pp. 113, 115, 179, no. 175, ill.
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The New Nineteenth-Century European Paintings and Sculpture Galleries
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Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2014. Retrieved 26 June 2014.
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The painting was first sold by the artist in 1864 to
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The Sphinx in the painting may be seen as a form of
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665:. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 49.
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The National Gallery, 2014. Retrieved 30 June 2014.
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206 cm (81 in) Ă— 105 cm (41 in)
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594:L'Artiste
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182:'s play
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240:Ingres'
232:realism
220:Jocasta
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