xxx/ellauri157.html on line 104: Jordaens’s large painting of The Wife of King Candaules displaying herself to Gyges is in the Nationalmuseum, in Stockholmii. In the large painting, the Queen is depicted lifesize, seen from behind, standing before a canopied bed. She is virtually naked, but for a string of pearls and a lace-trimmed cap. Just as she is about to step into her bed, she pauses and casts a backward glance, apparently addressing the viewer with a conspiratorial smile. On the far right of the picture, Gyges can be glimpsed craning his head through a gap in the curtain, with the King close behind him.
xxx/ellauri157.html on line 107: In the seventeenth century, the story of King Candaules’s wife was seen as a moral lesson, warning against violations of the marital bedchamber. The theme was treated by the poet Jacob Cats in his Toneel vande mannelicke Achtbaerheyt, in which he devoted no less than eighty-six verses to the tale of Candaules and Gyges, and illustrates the scene in the royal bedchamber with a print by Pieter de Jode after Adriaen van de Venne. In the print the Queen is seen half naked from behind. Candaules is already in bed, and the Queen looks at Gyges, who is largely concealed behind the wallhangings. The moral of the story is clarified by a scene on a smaller scale in the background, showing Candaules being slain by Gyges. The print no doubt served as an inspiration for several other later renditions of the theme in Northern Netherlandish painting, including works by Frans van Mieris the Elderv, and Eglon van de Neervi.
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