Artist: Eglon Hendrik Van Der Neer
Date: 1662
Size: 3 x 823 cm
Museum: Kunstpalast (Düsseldorf, Germany)
Technique: Oil On Canvas
Eros and Death are closely linked in this story of the forbidden gaze at female nudity. Lydian King Kandaules urges his friend Gyges to secretly convince himself of the beauty of his wife Nyssia, and pays for the pride in his possession with his life. Nyssia discovers the voyeur hidden behind the bed curtain and, to regain her honour, challenges him to either kill Kandaules and marry her or to himself die. Gyges murders his friend and thus becomes the instrument of a strong woman, the roles of victim and perpetrator are inverted, as the person seeking revenge wins out in this example of marital honour. The viewer as ‘voyeur’ participates in the dishonouring, and contemporaries may have been reminded of Jakob Cats’
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