Ganymede And The Eagle Analysis

I chose to visit the Minneapolis Institute of Art because I was told by others that this place had a large quantity of Greek artifacts to choose from. I have never been to an art museum before, it was very interesting, also interesting for my kids to explore a whole new world. The one sculpture that caught my eye was the Ganymede and the Eagle. I wanted to know the whole story behind this sculpture because just by looking at it; you couldn’t really tell what was going on between the two objects in the sculpture.
The individual who designed this sculpture was a Danish artist; his name is Albert Bertel Thorvaldsen. The Ganymede and the Eagle were created from 1817 – 1829 in Europe, Denmark. Bertel Thorvaldsen, also spelled Thorwaldsen was

born November 19, 1770 and died on March 24, 1844. (Art Exports) I have found several articles stating that the birth date was different, some said November 13, 1770 and another article said, “according to some accounts, it was November 13, 1768. He was born and died in Copenhagen, Denmark; he was a sculpture and outstanding in the neoclassical period; he was the first internationally renowned Danish artist. He won a traveling scholarship to Rome, where he remained for over forty years, he also studied at the Copenhagen Academy in Demark before he traveled to Rome. In Italy, the enthusiasm for classical sculpture which fired his imagination so much that he later acclaimed the date of arrival in 1797 as his “Roman Birthday.” (Bertel Thorvaldsen: Danish Neoclassical) He was one of the best sculpture artist, and also the first Danish to earn worldwide achievement. He was outstanding in creativity and artist circles and motivated many developed artists from the United States and Europe. He donated most of his money that he earned to his own museum and left detailed information for all his pieces he has created to be contributed to the museum. All the images of his sculptures and enormous collection of other artist’s works were combined in the fund. Thorvaldsen, the son of Gottskalk Thorvaldsen, an Icelander wood-carver at a shipyard. His father made fancy carvings for large ships and was the early source of significance on his son Bertel’s development as a sculptor and on his choice of career. Bertel’s mother was Karen Gronlund, a Jutlandic peasant girl. His birth certificate has never been found, and the only record of his confirmation is in 1787. (Bertel Thorvaldsen – Biography) Bertel’s father had a drinking habit which slowed down his career. There are no known facts about his schooling, he may have been schooled solely at home. He was never good at writing, and he never accomplished much of the familiarity of fine culture that was expected from an artist.
The physical dimensions of the Ganymede and the Eagle sculpture are 18.5w x 37.75h x 46.375d, it is fully designed for a single viewpoint; the sculpture is essentially held together by its one-dimensional line view.

Almost a comfort-like appearance and the nature of the group and is a mark of Thorvaldsen’s extreme mastery of a line, which he skilled to perfection. Made in Camarra marble, it is the 19th century style. The various versions of what Bertel has presented of the figure Ganymede is offering the drinking cup (1804) and the Ganymede filling the cup (1816) the work of the 1817 sculpture shows him as a kneeling figure serving water to the eagle. There are a few ancient rumors on how Ganymede, who is the son of King Tros, and was the most delightful of all youths, Ganymede was chosen by the gods of Zeus’s cupbearer. The father of the gods covered himself in eagle feathers and hunted out the youth on the Plain of Troy in order to draw him away from Olympus. The eagle dropped from the sky; Ganymede offers him his drinking cup, and the disguised Olympus god dips his beak into the bowl. As a sign of his origin, the youth wears the Phrygian cap and holds a jug in his right hand. (Web Gallery of Art) The precision detail of this sculpture is a boy and an eagle, which are carved from two separate black of marble. Thorvaldsen’s mastery of art can be seen in the details of which the two figures are pieced together. The cup that Ganymede is holding in his hand is casted

after a pottery called the Kylix, the kind of drinking cup that is used in ancient Greece. These cups were seen at parties and social gatherings in which the shape of the cup was easier to drink from when a person is reclining in a chair. In this sculpture you can’t really tell if Ganymede is enjoying the company of the eagle, or if he is uneasy being near the eagle. In regard to the Liberty cap, or what is also known as the Phrygian cap, it was looked upon as a symbol of freedom that was worn by slaves in ancient Greece. “In this sculpture, Ganymede is feeding the eagle Ambrosia, the “food of the gods” in Greek Mythology and often known as fluid. Ambrosia was said to bestow immortality on anyone who drank it” (Abrosia, Greek Mythology)
According to other stories, Eos, who was a Titan goddess in Greek Mythology, and the daughter of the Titans Hyperion and the Theia. Eos, the goddess of dawn, included in the family tree was also her two siblings; Helios, god of sun; and Selene, goddess of the moon. It was said in earlier stories that Eos kidnapped Ganymede snatched Ganymede to be her lover, and at the same time she also snatched Tithonus. Tithonus, a Greek legend, and the son of Laomedon, King of Troy. Zeus later then stripped Eos of Ganymede, in return blessing Eos the wish the Tithonus to be indestructible. Not thinking clearly, Eos forgot to add in her wish that Tithonus could continue to stay young and youthful. The faithful Eos looked after Tithonus, she had taken care of him every single day until one day she locked him up in a room to let him age all by himself. Tithonus undoubtedly lived for years but aged more and more into an elderly stage. In his story, he was cursed to live forever but his goddess lover forgot to ask for eternal youth, so he ended up turning into a cricket. “The poem “Tithonus” by English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson, famously begins:
The woods decay, the woods decay and fall,
The vapours weep their burthen to the ground,
Man comes and tills the field and lies beneath,
And after many a summer dies the swan.

Me only cruel immortality
Consumes; I wither slowly in thine arms.”
Here at the quiet limit of the world,
A white-hair'd shadow roaming like a dream
The ever-silent spaces of the East,
Far-folded mists, and gleaming halls of morn. (Tithonus, Poets.org)
Ganymede was known for his beauty; he was a Trojan prince in the Greek era. According to another tale, Zeus turned himself into an eagle and kidnapped Ganymede and lured him into Mount Olympus. Ganymede’s father was weeping for his son, so in turn Zeus had delivered two horses so swift that they could run over water. Tros was completely satisfied that son will have a noble stand. “The theme of the father recurs in many of the Greek coming of age myths of male love, suggesting the relationship to be symbolized by these stories that took place with the consent of the father.” (Aquarius, the Gay Constellation) Most of the gods were comfortable with Ganymede, in the exception of Hera, who was feeling awfully jealous. Hera was the wife and one of the three sisters of Zeus in the Greek Mythology and religion. Her leading function was the goddess of women and marriage. “Zeus eventually turned Ganymede into a constellation which is known as Aquarious (the water-bearer) in the sky, even to this day it is still linked with that of the Eagle (Aquila).” (Myth

and the Jupiter) Some of the sources that came into play were saying that Zeus’ love triangle with Ganymede was a (religious) confirmation for homosexuality within the Greek culture, yet others are stating that this is the way of life, and that is the way people lived at that time. Before the acceptance of the Zeus and Ganymede myth that have spread over time, they only acceptance of sodomy was a form of goddess worship.
“Apollodorus argued that this myth was emphasized the victory of patriarchy over matriarchy.” (Graves) This showed that men did not need women to exist; therefore they did not need the attention of women, and the philosopher Plato used this myth to justify his sexual feelings towards male pupils” (Robert Graves, The Greek Mythology). According to Robert Graves, “it was interpreted the substitution of Ganymede for Tithonus in a few references to the myth as a misreading of an archaic icon that would have shown the consort of the winged Goddess bearing a libation cup in his hand.” Some sources say that they believed that Thorvaldsen’s images were imitating his own weakness of homosexuality or bisexual thinking in turn that is where he discovered the psycho-sexual perception of art. The Greeks and the Romans thought that homosexuality was indeed the basic way of living during that era, most of the men thought being attracted to both males and females where the norm, just to pick one sexual preference was considered unusual. Though it wasn’t prohibited and punishing was nonexistence because they thought the shame of having homosexual encounters was enough embarrassment for a person.
Detailed about the sculpture of Ganymede and the Eagle have multitude of stories that have been told by people. Many stories provided examples for kids and children how to act and behave in life, and also reflecting the importance of what life has to offer. The detailed description of Ganymede and the Eagle that was sculptured by Bertel Thorvaldsen during 1817 to 1829 has given the people the power to imagine what is going on in between both the eagle and Ganymede. Stories also existed I believing that Thorvaldsen had a homosexual or bisexual lifestyle in the way he had created his master pieces, is it true or not? Doing all this research that I have looked into, it has open my eyes on how the people lived in the past and what similarities that still exist to this day.