On a sky-blue background, Dufy lined up nine Olympian gods in grisaille. His inspiration came from the pediment of the Parthenon, a temple dedicated to Athena, sculpted by Phidias and built by Pericles “the Olympian”. Dufy was a scholarly artist who made no secret of his admiration for the classical, whether it be ancient statuary or French classical art such as that of Poussin and Claude Lorrain.
Visuel de la fresque (scène concernée)
From left to right, we recognise Dionysus seated, holding a cup and his thyrsus, and wearing a crown of vine leaves; Apollo and his lyre; and Athena wearing a helmet and holding her spear with her shield at its foot. In the middle, Zeus is enthroned above the lightning, his sceptre in his left hand. For a model for Zeus Dufy went to the copy of the Jupiter Verospi in the Vatican. To Zeus’s right, Hera is wearing a diadem while Aphrodite stands upright and half-naked. For Aphrodite, Dufy was inspired not by the Parthenon but by a sculpture in the Louvre, the Venus of Arles. At the far end, Ares, son of Zeus and Hera, stands helmeted and armed beside Aphrodite.
Further down on the right, Poseidon is inflating a sail stretched between his hands, thus capturing the power of the wind. Here Dufy was inspired by Lebrun’s triumph of the waters in the Apollo Gallery at Versailles.
Visuel de la fresque (détail)
On the opposite side, as if floating in the ether, Hermes, with his petasus and his winged ankles, has the caduceus in one hand and in the other the horn of plenty born of the electricity he is about to spread over the world. It would seem that Dufy’s inspiration here was a red-figure vase in the Louvre. Hermes is also the link between Olympus and the earthly world. Part of his body is in grisaille, as for the other gods, while the other, transparent half is outlined with white, in the manner of black-figure vases.
Visuel de la fresque (détail)
On the right, amidst clouds, smoke and sparks, there emerges a bust seen by some art historians as Pericles, who has no real reason to be here. Others have identified it as Lucretius, the Latin author of De Rerum Natura. On reviewing his preliminary drawings, Dufy opted for a Greek sculptor, recognisable by his instruments and his little cap – probably Phidias, sculptor of the pediment. Dufy reworked Jacques Carrey’s drawings of 1674 reconstructing the pediment of the Parthenon, some of whose sculpted figures can still be seen in the British Museum, which the artist visited during his stays in London in 1930, 1932 and 1934.
Visuel de la fresque (détail)
Museums and classical ancient art served as sources for the recreation of Olympus. Like the classical painters he admired, Dufy shows a sureness and lightness of touch in his drawing, together with real skill in rendering ancient drapery.
Dufy finally inserted only nine of these figures, whereas his preliminary drawings had also made provision for Hephaestus. Similarly, he simplified the representation of the gods by removing certain attributes, such as the eagle at Zeus’s feet. As with the scholars, he made numerous drawings of the figures, first nude, then clothed.