Aurora and Cephalus
Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson (French, 1767–1824)
c.1810
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- Framed: 34.9 x 29.9 x 7 cm (13 3/4 x 11 3/4 x 2 3/4 in.); Unframed: 22.8 x 16.8 cm (9 x 6 5/8 in.)
- Culture
- France, 19th century
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Modern European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Gift of the Painting and Drawing Society of The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
The goddess of the dawn, Aurora, fell in love with the shepherd Cephalus. She eventually seized him at daybreak, bringing him to the heavens while he slept—the scene Girodet has painted here. Later, missing his wife, Procris, Cephalus begs to return. Aurora agrees, giving him a magic spear that kills every target, including his wife, when he mistakes her for an animal in the brush.
