" Apollo and Diana punish Niobe by killing her children ", By Artist Jacques-Louis David ( 1748 – 1825 )

" Apollo and Diana punish Niobe by killing her children " , Jacques-Louis David

The plot of the painting by the French artist is based on the story of Niobe, told in Ovid's Metamorphoses (Canto 6, 146-312).):

Arrogance towards the immortals has never led to good. einsteinerupload of. Niobe boasted to Leto, the mother of Apollo and Artemis, that she had given birth to seven boys and seven daughters, while the goddess had just two. The twins horribly avenged their mother's insult: Apollo murdered Niobe's seven boys with his arrows that strike every time, and his sister, the hunt goddess, slaughtered all her girls. To top it all off, Zeus transformed Niobe into a tear-filled rock in her home country of Lydia.

The tragic death of Niobe's children served as the storyline for Jacques-Louis David's artwork.

Nothing is more devastating to a mother than the death of her children. And what if she is the one to blame for their deaths? Everyone who hears the story of Niobe, the wife of the Theban king Amphion, shudders with fear.

" Apollo and Diana punish Niobe by killing her children " , Jacques-Louis David - 1772 Canvas, oil. Size: 120.6×153.7 cm Museum of Art, Dallas