Alchemical Allegory in Gustave Moreau's The Daughters of Thestius

NOTES

• ‘Ils imaginaient qu'il devait y avoir, cachée quelque part dans l'énorme hôtel, une bibliothèque de livres d'alchimie, d'hermétisme et autres sciences merveilleuses.’ Albert Marquet's account of the visit to Moreau's house made by his young students Rouault, Matisse and himself was recorded by Jean Cassou (preface to the Catalogue of the exhibition Gustave Moreau, Paris, Musée du Louvre, 1961, pp 9–10) and quoted by P.-L. Mathieu, ‘La Bibliothèque de Gustave Moreau’, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Vie Pér., XCI, April 1978, p. 155. Moreau's library comprised some 1600 books (Mathieu, ibid.) of which the young painters saw only one volume.
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• P. Leprieur, ‘Gustave Moreau et son oeuvre’, L'Artiste, March-June, 1889, p. 6.
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• J. Péladan, Salon of 1884, quoted in his ‘Gustave Moreau’, L’ Ermitage, Jan. 1895, p. 29. Péladan also saw in Moreau's work the realisation of the theories of the Rose-Croix (ibid. p.34).
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• L. Thévenin, L'Esthétique de Gustave Moreau, Paris, 1897. Thénevin noted Moreau's syncretism, his search for the ‘sacred enigma’ revealed beneath the precision of forms and his understanding of myth as symbolising the universal law of struggle between the forces of the Spirit and of nature (pp. 8–9). A similar interpretation of Moreau's oeuvre is found in Édouard Schuré's Précurseurs et révoltés, Paris, 1904, which discusses the search for eternal truths beneath the forms of nature and the interpretation of myth as symbolic of the great forces of the universe (pp.329 and 339–40). The analogical mode of thought (the correspondence between macrocosm and microcosm and consequently the revelation of the divine in the forms of nature), the dualism of spirit and matter and their eternal struggle are concepts fundamental to the occult world view; see J. Senior, The Way Down and Out: The Occult in Symbolist Poetry, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, N.Y.,1959, esp. Chs. 3 and 4. On the Surrealists, especially André Breton, and alchemy see J. van Lennep, Art et Alchimie, Éditions Meddens, Brussels, 1971, pp. 247 ff.
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• Writers familiar with the esoteric traditions continue to discuss Moreau's work with reference to an occult framework (see Paul Beihler, ‘Une figure exceptionnelle: Gustave Moreau penseur profond et peintre de génie’, Cahier des Arts, 6e année, March 1961, pp. 2362–2365, and his ‘Un peintre platonicien au XIXe siècle: Gustave Moreau ou l'éternelle jeunesse du Mythe’, Atlantis, no. 226, 38e année, Nov.- Dec. 1964, pp. 59–84. See also S. Hutin, ‘L'aventure spirituelle de Gustave Moreau’, Ondes vives, no. 62, June 1971, pp. 37–39. Twentieth-century art historians have long recognised Gnostic and Manichean elements in Moreau's art (eg. G. Schiff, ‘Die Seltsame Welt des Malers Gustave Moreau’, Du Atlantis, (Zurich) May 1965, p. 383, and J. Kaplan, ‘Gustave Moreau's Jupiter and Semele’, Art Quarterly, v. 4 no. 3, 1970, pp. 406–407) but as late as 1986 p.-L. Mathieu notes that specific sources in the esoteric traditions have not been identified (Kunsthaus, Zurich, Gustave Moreau, Symboliste, catalogue of the exhibition held 14 March to 15 May, 1986, ‘Der Alltag eines Traumsammlers’ by P.-L. Mathieu, p. 34). D. Kosinski's article, ‘Gustave Moreau's “La Vie de l'humanité”: Orpheus in the Context of Religious syncretism, Universal Histories, and Occultism’, Art Journal, vol 46 No. 1, Spring 1987, pp. 9–14, sets this work within a general context of occult interpretations of myth and history and finds parallels between Moreau's interpretation of the subject and those of occultist writers of the period but does not identify specific esoteric sources. Arturo Schwarz included two works by Gustave Moreau in the section ‘Art and Alchemy’ of the 42nd Venice Biennale held in 1986. In the absence of further commentary in the catalogue, it is not known if Schwarz saw in these works a specific use of alchemical symbolism or if he included Moreau as an example of an artist who ‘is an alchemist without knowing it’ in whose work the ‘motifs of alchemic symbolism emerge… independently of his will.’ See A. Schwarz, ‘Art and Alchemy’ in XLII Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte: La Biennale di Venezia: Arte e Scienza, General Catalogue, Edizioni La Biennale, Venice, 1986, p.78.
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• G. Moreau, in P.-L. Mathieu, ed., L'Assembleur des rêves. Écrits complets de Gustave Moreau, Bibliothèque artistique & littéraire, Fontfroide, 1984, p. 112. In regard to Jupiter and Semele, a detailed, complex work, Moreau wrote: ‘Le sens de cette peinture pour qui sait un peu lire dans une création plastique est extrêmement clair et limpide’. Moreau believed in the capability of painting to convey, as can language, a profound and deliberate meaning, referring to painting as a poetry of silence, as the ‘language of God’ (ibid., p. 184) and as a kind of writing with mysterious, silent characters (ibid., p. 189).
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• ‘The Creations of this myth are (allegories of the laboratory) he should be silent—& humble.’ This comment is found in an unnumbered notebook in the Reserve collection of the Musée Gustave Moreau, Paris. In the original text the word ‘mythe’ is badly written with letters corrected and with a full stop replacing (presumably) the ‘e’, possibly suggesting that Moreau hesitated before completing the sentence or perhaps that he considered a shortened form of the word ‘mythologie’. The use of the masculine pronoun however confirms the reading of the word as ‘mythe’. The brackets around ‘allégories du laboratoire’ are Moreau's. I am grateful to Gerard Fries for the dating and for the reconstruction of the order of the extant pages of this notebook.
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• Moreau wrote: ‘Le tableau a été tout trouvé à 25 ans. Il a été agrandi. Le point de départ était bon. L'expérience et la méditation seules des années ont mieux trouvé la mise en lumière, la façon de mieux présenter l'oeuvre, ce qui faisait défaut.’ P.-L. Mathieu, ed., Écrits complets, p. 39.
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• Musée Gustave Moreau, Paris (hereafter MGM). I am grateful to Gerard Fries for generously making available to me his work on the reconstruction and dating of Moreau's sketchbooks. The Musée Gustave Moreau in Paris houses large unpublished collections of Moreau's sketchbooks and drawings as well as the exhibited paintings and drawings catalogued in the Catalogue des Peintures, Dessins, Cartons, Aquarelles exposés dans les galeries du Musée Gustave Moreau, Éditions des musées nationaux, Paris, 1974 and in P. Bittler and P.-L. Mathieu, Catabgue des dessins de Gustave Moreau, Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, Paris, 1983.
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• See eg. MGM drawings nos. 4114, 4088, and also 4079 which combines both the meditative pose and the entry from the flight of steps.
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• Quoted above n. 8. Details of paintings enlarged by Moreau by December 1882 are found in Kaplan, op, cit., p. 411, n. 34 and J. Kaplan, The Art of Gustave Moreau: Theory, Style and Content, UMI Research Press, Ann Arbor, Michigan, (1972) 1982, p. 192, n. 101.
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• See W.H. Roscher, Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie, Leipzig, 1884–1937, vol. V, cols. 770–775, ‘Thespios’. Roscher discusses the classical sources for the episode and argues that an illustration of this theme has not yet been discovered. He refutes some later nineteenth-century identifications of Hercules with one of the daughters of Thestius (cols. 772–3). The subject does not seem to have been treated in the Renaissance and Baroque periods, despite the interest in the Hercules theme. A. Pigler, Barockthemen: eine Auswahl von Verzeichnissen zur Ikonographie des 17 und 18 Jahrhunderts, Budapest, Akademiai Kiado, 1974, does not include this subject in its extensive treatment of the Hercules myth.
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• For the classical sources of this myth see R. Graves, The Greek Myths, Penguin, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, rev. ed. (1960) 1977, vol. 2, pp 95–97. For a more detailed discussion see Roscher, op. cit.
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• G. Moreau, in P.-L. Mathieu, ed., Écrits complets, p. 39: ‘C'est la réalisation pensée, d'un mythe antique des plus délicats, des plus mystérieux à exprimer. C'est la mise en lumière d'une grande et profonde idée antique. L'hymne à la virilité, à la force créatrice’.
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• My translation from the original commentary by Moreau. A French text is published in P.-L. Mathieu, ed., Écrits complets, pp. 37–39, but this edition omits the phrase ‘Hymne à la génération’ which Moreau wrote alongside the margin and follows Henri Rupp's transcription of Moreau's commentaries in replacing ‘matière’ by ‘nature’. Moreau's commentary was written as a draft with insertions and crossings out. I have followed where possible Moreau's setting out of the commentary, and his punctuation or lack thereof, but I have not included words that are crossed out. I am grateful to Gerard Fries for the use of his photographs of the original text and to Beatrice Glattauer for her help with this translation.
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• This summary of the alchemical tradition and the following account of its principles were drawn principally from the following texts: T. Burckhardt, Alchemy: Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul, tr. W. Stoddart, Stuart and Watkins, London, 1967; C. G. Jung, Psychology and Alchemy, tr. R.F.C. Hull, Bollingen Series XX, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ., reved., (1968) 1980; C.G. Jung, Mysterium Coniunctionis, tr. R.F.C.Hull, Bollingen Series XX, Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J., (1963) 1977; J. van Lennep, op.cit..; A. Poisson, Théories et Symboles des Alchimistes: Le Grand-Oeuvre, Chacornac, Paris, 1891; J. Senior, op.cit., and S. Klossowski de Rola, Alchemy: The Secret Art, Thames and Hudson, London, 1973. See also M. Gabriele, ‘The Alchemic Tradition in the West According to Manuscript and Printed Sources’ in XLII Esposizione Internazionale d Arte: La Biennale di Venezia: Arte e Scienza, General Catalogue 1986, Edizioni La Biennale, Venice, 1986, p.69 and A. Schwarz, ‘Art and Alchemy’, ibid, pp. 77–82. Nineteenth-century accounts of the history and/or processes of alchemy include A. Poisson, op.cit., with its bibliography of nineteenth century texts on alchemy, M. Berthelot, Les origines de l'alchimie, Georges Steinheil, 1885 and L. Figuier, L'Alchimie et les alchimistes, 3rd. ed., L. Hachette, Paris, 1860.
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• Mylius, J.D., Tractatus secundi seu Basilicae chymicae, Frankfort, 1620. Van Lennep, op.cit., pp. 111–112 discusses the symbolism of this engraving.
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• Psalm 33, v.6: ‘By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.’ The quotations from Psalm 104 are largely taken from v. 28–31: ‘The spirit of the Lord fills the earth: (v.28) all are filled with thy good O Lord: (v.29) Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to dust: (v.30) Thou sendest forth thy spirit: and thou renewest the face of the earth: (v.31) The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever.’ The translation of these Psalms is from The Holy Bible containing the Old and New Testaments in the Authorized King James Version, Abradale Press, New York, 1965.
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• See Klossowski de Rola, op.cit., pp 14–15 for the English translation of the complete text.
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• Ovid, Les Metamorphoses d'Ovide, divisées en XV livres. Auec de nouuelles Explications Historiques, Morales & Politiques sur toutes les Fables, chacun selon son sujet… tr. Pierre Du-Reyer, Chez Antoine de Sommaville, au Palais, Paris, 1660. My thanks to Gerard Fries for his identification of Moreau's edition of Ovid's Metamorphoses.
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• Poisson, op.cit., p. 39.
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• Flamel, N., Le grand esclairissement de la pierre philosophale pour la transmutation de tous les Metaux, Louys Vendosmes, Paris, 1628.
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• See Poisson, op.cit. pp 12–14.
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• Moreau, in Mathieu, Écrits complets, p. 39: ‘Deux cippes derrière Hercule portent le soleil et la lune, tous deux naturellement symbolisés par des Taureaux et des Sphinx. Les deux pôles de la vie, de la création, emblèmes de cette dualité constante des deux sexes.’
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• F. King, Magic, the Western Tradition, Thames and Hudson, London, 1975, commentary to plate 44.
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• G. Lafenestre in Le Moniteur Universel, 12 May 1876, quoted in Mathieu, Gustave Moreau: with a catalogue of the finished paintings, watenolors and drawings, New York Graphic Society, Boston, Mass., 1976, p. 120. See also Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Gustave Moreau, exhibition held July 23 to September 1, and at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, September 14 to November 3, 1974, catalogue by J. Kaplan, Los Angeles County Museum of Art and New York Graphic Society, Greenwich, Conn., 1974, p. 41 and note 80. Kaplan believes that Louis Menard, Du Polythéisme Hellénique (Paris, Charpentier, 1863) was the source for the Apollonian Hercules in Moreau's Hydra of Lerne (Art Institute of Chicago, PM Cat. no. 152). However this source is too late for The Daughters of Thestius. Moreau may also have known of Hercules as a solar divinity through Georg Friedrich Creuzer, Symbolik und Mythologie der alten Völker...Leipzig and Darmstadt, 1810–1812, Fr. trans, by J.-D. Guigniaut, Religions de l'antiquité considérées principalement dans leurs formes symboliques et mythologiques, Treuttel & Würtz (J.-J. Kossbühl et F. Didot frères), 1825–1851. However the most likely source is Charles-Francois Dupuis, Origine de tous les cultes, ou Religion universelle, H. Agnasse, Paris, An III (1794–5), an edition of which is found in Moreau's library.
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• See Poisson, op.cit., Ch. II for an account of the alchemical theory of matter.
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• Cornelius Petraeus, Sylva Philosophorum, seventeenth century, Bibliotheek der Rijksuniversiteit, Leiden, Cod. Voss. chem. q. 61. See Klossowski de Rola, op.cit., p. 120–122 for reproductions of the plates of this work.
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• G. Moreau in P.-L. Mathieu, Écrits complets, p. 40: ‘Filles de Thespius—Le milieu est une salle immense, éclairée par des lampes et par les ‘rayons de la lune. Au loin des jardins odorants, des senteurs puissantes d'orangers, de citronniers, de myrtes se répandent et enivrent. Belle nuit calme et pure, toute de silence, grandes baies ouvertes sur ces jardins enchantées.’
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• A.-J. Pernety, Dictionnaire mytho-hermètique, dans lequel on trouve Les Allégories Fabuleuses des Poètes, les Métaphores, les Énigmes et les Termes barbares des Philosophes Hermétiques expliqués, Bauche, Paris, 1758, facsim. ed., Arché, Milan 1980, p xiv, writes that some philosophers say that the work of the Sun should be begun in the sign of Aries, the ram, and that of the Moon in the sign of Taurus the bull, ie. these are the signs propitious for the Great work. On the time said to be taken for the operation of the Great Work, see ibid, p. xv–xvi.
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• For the alchemical interpretations of classical myths and their chain of succession from the Renaissance to the eighteenth century see S. Matton's introduction ‘L'herméneutique alchimique de la fable antique’ in the facsimile edition of A.-J. Pernety, Les Fables Égyptiennes et Greques dévoileés & réduites au même principe, avec une explication des hiéroglyphes, et de la guerre de Troye, Delalain l'aîné, Paris, 1786, facsim. ed. La Table d'Emeraude, Paris, 1982.
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• Pernety, ibid.
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• Pernety, Dictionnaire, cited n. 30 above.
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• ibid., pp. 190–101 (my trans.).
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• Pernety, Fables, vol. II, pp. 349–475.
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• ibid, Book V, ch. III, pp. 375–377.
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• ibid., pp. 375–376 (my trans.).
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• See Pernety, ibid.., pp. 158–160 and 191–2, and Pernety, Dictionnaire, p. vi and pp. 468–9.
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• Pernety, Fables, pp. 45–124, ‘Principes généraux de physique suivant la Philosophie Hermétique’ and pp. 124–214, ‘Traité de l'Oeuvre Hermétique’.
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• Dupuis, cited n. 26 above; G. Duchoul, Discours de la religion des anciens romains, Lyon, 1567; E. Levi, Fables et Symboles, avec leur explication ou sont révélés les grands secrets de la direction du magnétisme universel et des principes fondamentaux du Grand Oeuvre, Germer Baillière, Paris, 1862; Menard, cited above n. 26; L. Purper, La Résurrection de la mythologie. Le véritable Hercule, Io et Argus, Hercule et Déjanire, le véritable Thésée, le véritable Petit Poucet, L. Vanier, Paris, 1894; M. Bréal, Essai de Sémantique (Science des significations), Hachette, Paris, 1897. On Moreau's library, see P.-L. Mathieu, op.cit. n.1 above.
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• See A. Viatte, Les sources occultes du Romantisme, Illuminisme, Theosophie, 1770–1770, 2 v. Paris, Champion, (1928) 1979, and B. Juden, Traditions orphiques et tendences mystiques dans le romantisme française, 1800–1800, Klincksieck, Paris, 1971. Works which deal with the interest in the occult traditions throughout the nineteenth century include A. Mercier, Les Sources Ésotériques et Occultes de la Poésie Symboliste (1870–1914), v.I, Le Symbolisme Français, Nizet, Paris,1969, esp. Ch. II, ‘Le renouveau occultiste et l'évolution poétique en France—(1840–1870)’; D.G. Charlton, Secular Religions in France, 1815–1870, Oxford Univ. Press, London, New York, Melbourne, 1963, esp. Ch. VI, Occult and Neo-Pagan Religions’; J. Senior, op.cit.
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• On Mme de Staël and de Maistre see Viatte op cit., v.II pp. 128–131 (for Mme de Staël) and v.II, ch II, ‘Le comte Joseph de Maistre’. For the esotericism of the latter see also E. Dermenghem, Joseph de Maistre mystique: ses rapports avec le Martinisme, l'illuminisme et la franc-maçonnerie, l'influence des doctrines mystiques et occultes sur sa pensée réligieuse, rev. ed., La Colombe, Paris, n.d.
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• J. von Goethe, Le Faust de Goethe, trans, H. Blaze, Charpentier, Paris, 1840. Henri Blaze, in the hundred page ‘Essai sur Goethe et le second Faust’ which introduced his translation, noted the ardour with which Goethe in his youth devoted himself to the study of the occult sciences and gave detailed explanations for the alchemical allegorisations of the drama. On Mozart's Magic Flute see J. Chailley, ‘La Flute enchantée’: Opera maçonnique, Éditions d'Aujourd'hui, Paris, 1975.
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• J. Michelet, La sorcière, Paris, L. Hachette, 1862; L.-G. Figuier, L'alchimie et les alchimistes, essai historique et critique sur la philosophie hermétique, Paris, L. Hachette, 1860 (3rd. ed.); A.-J. Matter, Historie critique du gnosticisme…, F.-G. Levrault, Paris 1828. Other, later studies of alchemy include M. Berthelot, Les origines de l'alchimie, G. Steinheil, Paris, 1885, his Histoire des sciences. La chimie au moyen-âge… Imp. Nationale, Paris, 1893, and his translations of alchemical texts, Collections des anciens alchimistes grecs G. Steinheil, Paris, 1887–88. Poisson, op.cit., lists an extensive bibliography of nineteenth century writings on alchemy. On the development of the study of comparative religion see Charlton, op.cit., pp. 136–137.
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• See Mercier, op.cit. p 61. Menard composed Promethée delivré in 1844, and in 1863 published Le Polythéisme Hellenique, of which Moreau owned a copy. Menard also published, in 1866, his translation of the fragments of Hermes Trismegistus, author of the legendary Emerald Tablet.
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• See Mercier, op.cit., pp 59–61.
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• Mercier, ibid., p. 60–61. Occultists too were aware of the significance of Freemasonry in reviving the symbolic traditions, cf. Papus (G. Encausse), and A. Chaboseau, Petit glossaire des principaux termes techniques couramment employés dans les livres et revues traitants d'occultisme, de théosophie de kabbale, de franc-maçonnerie, de spiritisme, etc.,…, Carré, Paris, 1892, p. 10, entry under ‘Franc-Maçonnerie’.
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• J.M. Ragon, Maçonnerie occulte, suivi de l'initiation hermétique… E.Dentu, Paris, 1853. See pp. 3 and 134, on the alchemical symbolism of the lodge; p. 5, for the concept of ‘génération’; and Ch. XVI, on the alchemical interpretation of myth. This book was also published as part of Ragon's Orthodoxie maçonnique suivi de la maçonnerie occulte et de l'initiation hermétique, E. Dentu, Paris, 1853. See also Lennep, op.cit., p. 280 who lists an 1841 edition published at Nice.
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• F.H.S. de L'Aulnaye, Récapitulation de toute la maçonnerie, ou description et explication de l'hiéroglyphe universel du maître des maîtres. Orient de Memphis, de l'Imprimerie de Nouzou, Paris, 1812, pp. 27–28.
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• ibid., pp. 5–6.
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