In this painting, Ariadne laments her fate after the Greek hero Theseus abandoned her on Naxos. She is hardly consoled by the chest of jewels that Theseus left for her. Instead, as her dramatic gesture indicates, she is overcome by her turbulent emotions. Through this gesture and the droop of her head, Angelica Kauffman conveys Ariadne’s feelings, which are reinforced by the gloomy landscape.
Ariadne fell in love with Theseus when he had come to Crete to kill the Minotaur, a terrible half-man, half-bull kept at the center of the Labyrinth, a winding maze. After Ariadne helped Theseus kill the beast and find his way out of the maze, the two escaped from Crete and journeyed back to Athens. They stopped at the island of Naxos, where Theseus deserted Ariadne. Dionysus, the god of wine, soon rescued Ariadne and fell in love with her.
Kauffman developed a smooth and elegant style that was both modern in spirit and popular with art collectors. Many features of this painting recall works of art from ancient Rome. The clothing, the jewel box, and the pillows are all based on ancient models. The clear colors, especially the warm reds and greens, are reminiscent of frescoes from Roman villas at Pompeii that Kauffman would have known through her associations with the court at Naples. The spirit of this picture is classical, but its execution reveals a sense of grace and refinement typical of the late 18th century.
Neoclassicism was a movement in art and other fields that looked to the ancient world for inspiration in subject and style. In painting, the Neoclassical movement was inspired by the excavations in Italy that began in the middle of the eighteenth century. Of the rich finds the excavations brought to light, Kauffman was most influenced by the frescoes, the painted decorations on the walls of the ancient villas, which were made known to the public through engravings and were avidly studied by artists.
Angelica Kauffman was a truly international painter. Swiss by birth, she was trained in Italy, the country she always loved and where she felt most at home, and became famous in England, where she spent fifteen years of her life. She was elected to the Royal Academy in 1768, and also to several Italian academies. Kauffman was popular with contemporary art collectors, and executed portraits of many rulers and of such luminaries as Goethe, the great German writer.
