Harpies try to keep open the doors of the temple of Janus, but they are clubbed by Hercules. Coloured mezzotint by A. Blooteling after G. de Lairesse.

  • Lairesse, Gérard de, 1640-1711.
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44561i
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view Harpies try to keep open the doors of the temple of Janus, but they are clubbed by Hercules. Coloured mezzotint by A. Blooteling after G. de Lairesse.

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Credit

Harpies try to keep open the doors of the temple of Janus, but they are clubbed by Hercules. Coloured mezzotint by A. Blooteling after G. de Lairesse. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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Description

The open gates of the temple of Janus indicate a state of war, the closed gates indicate a state of peace. Here two goddesses or priestesses try to close the gates, but the harpies try to keep them open. One of the two women holds the caduceus. Above the door to the temple is the two-faced bust of Janus

Physical description

1 print : mezzotint, painted in colours and mounted on glass ; glass 35.5 x 28.5 cm

Contributors

References note

Charles Le Blanc, Manuel de l'amateur d'estampes, Amsterdam 1970, vol. 1, p. 384 "Blootelingh. Le temple de Janus: Gérard Lairesse. Haut 350 millim., larg. 272"
Hollstein's Dutch and Flemish etchings, engravings and woodcuts, 1450-1700, vol. 2, Amsterdam [1950], Blooteling no. 231, "Hercules before the temple of Janus. G. Lairesse pinxit"
Stefano Pierguidi, 'Gérard de Lairesse and Bloemaert', Print quarterly, 2004, 21: 293-295

Reference

Wellcome Collection 44561i

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