Jules-Arsène Garnier

As revealed by the sensational paintings by Garnier (who died relatively young, leaving few works behind), it is evident that the artist had an affinity for Europe's ancient folklore, mythologies and ecclesiastical stories.  In works such as Le Supplice des Adultères, exhibited at the Salon of 1875, Garnier was inspired by books like Les Supplice des Curiosities des Traditions, des Moeurs et des Legendes by  Ludovic Lalanne (1815-1898) which recorded Europe's rich story-telling traditions with a particular focus on vivid tales of brutal crimes, evil deeds, naughty sins and their punishment.  While the present work is not a direct Ludovic quotation, it fulfills that author's mission to record narratives that had been translated and transformed for hundreds of years. Specifically, its depiction of a nude woman emerging from a well, hair dripping wet and mirror in hand, most likely adapts tales of the Greek painter Apelles (late 4th century–early 3rd century BC). While it is believed that none of Apelles' works remain in existence, his allegorical picture of Calumny was recorded in writings held in monastery libraries. Many artists have interpreted these writings, including Brugel, Mantegna, Rubens and perhaps most famously Sandro Botticelli, with his The Calumny of Apelles  (Uffizi Gallery, Florence).  In that work, an innocent man is dragged before a corrupt king's throne by the personifications of Calumny, Malice, Fraud and Envy. They are followed to one side by Remorse, as an old woman, turning to face the Truth, a beautiful nude woman pointing toward Heaven.  The tale was further reinterpreted in the following years as Garnier illustrates in the present work.  Here Truth remains a maiden, emerging from the well in which she has been thrown to stop her revelations; her nakedness revealing that she has nothing to hide, she holds a mirror that reflects the sins of those running away in fear—among them Remorse, now visualized as a terrified maid, a troubadour who has fallen on his lute, a shadowy figure hiding in the doorway, and an innocent, abandoned child. This powerful allegory would be taken up again by Garnier's teacher Gérôme in his series of works on the subject used to denounce the activities surrounding the controversial Dreyfus Affair in France in the 1890s.