FRENCH SCHOOL. ۰۰۰۰۰۰۰۰ GUÉRIN......... PRIVATE COLLECTION. AURORA. In this picture the author has shewn himself highly poetical, as he exhibits Aurora raising the veil of Night, surrounded by a vividlight which she diffuses over the earth, and letting fall from her fingers the roses she brings forth. But to give light to mankind is not the only thought of the goddess. M. Guerin, in placing Cupid by her, displays the excessive love she entertained for Cephalus. The sleep in which this son of Mercury is plunged, calls to mind that all the promises of Aurora could not tempt Cephalus to be unfaithful to his wife Procris. The goddess had no other resource than to carry off her beloved when she found him sleeping on mount Hymetus; but the affection of Cephalus remained unchangeable; and Aurora, in despair at his unshaken constancy, was obliged to set him free; however, in doing so, she imbued his mind with a jealousy which rendered him miserable. M. Guerin, so correct in drawing, has evinced himself in this picture more of a colourist than usual; it was exhibited at the Louvre in 1810, and belongs to M. de Sommaviva the ceiling of whose bed-chamber it decorates; it has been engraved by M. Forster. Height, 8 feet 5 inches; breadth, 6 feet 4 inches. |