Ganymede Feeding the Eagle
Oil on paper laid on canvas
Richard Evans
Possibly Italy, 1822
Given by the artist
36-1870
On display in room 82
Portrait painter and copyist Richard Evans (1784 – 1871) produced this oil sketch in 1822, as preparation for an experimental fresco.
Evans spent many years in Rome, where he tried imitating ancient wall paintings, seemingly aiming to create works that appeared ‘authentically antique’.
The eagle here is larger than in Cousteau’s sculpture, but the exact dynamic between the eagle and Ganymede is difficult to determine. The highlighting of Ganymede’s soft skin and the turn of his head towards the viewer, lend themselves to homoerotic interpretation.
Evans appears to have based Ganymede’s pose on Michelangelo’s sculpture of Bacchus (1496-97), which was itself modelled on work by the ancients and noted for its androgynous qualities and soft, rather than muscular, flesh.
