Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Ariadne.
The gallery
Bacchus and Ariadne
Titian, 1522–1523
On the shore of Naxos, Ariadne turns as Bacchus leaps from his cheetah-drawn chariot toward her — Theseus' ship already a pale sail on the horizon. The circle of stars above her head foreshadows the crown that will become the constellation Corona Borealis. Painted for Alfonso d'Este's camerino in Ferrara, the canvas now hangs in the National Gallery, London.
Sleeping Ariadne
Unknown (Roman copy after a Hellenistic original), Hadrianic, 2nd century AD
The Vatican Museums' reclining marble shows Ariadne abandoned on Naxos — one arm thrown over her head, legs crossed, the serpentine bracelet on her arm long mistaken for Cleopatra's asp. A Hadrianic copy of a Pergamene Hellenistic type, it became one of antiquity's most famous statues and the model for countless later sleepers.
Bacchus, Venus and Ariadne
Jacopo Tintoretto, 1576–1577
In the Doge's Palace, Tintoretto stages Ariadne's apotheosis: Bacchus rises from the sea with vine leaves and a marriage ring while Venus crowns the Cretan princess with stars. Commissioned for the Sala dell'Anticollegio, the square mythological canvas makes Ariadne the emblem of Venice favoured by the gods.
Ariadne Abandoned by Theseus
Angelica Kauffmann, 1774
Kauffmann isolates the Naxos morning after the thread: Ariadne alone on the shore, Theseus' ship already gone, the emotional centre of Catullus' abandoned heroine restaged for a neoclassical audience. Oil on canvas, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Bacchus and Ariadne
Antoine-Jean Gros, 1820
Gros returns to the Naxos meeting in the grand manner of French Romantic history painting: Bacchus' train surges toward the seated Ariadne as the island shore becomes a theatre of divine rescue. The canvas is held by the Phoenix Art Museum.
On screen
In music & on stage
L'Arianna
Claudio Monteverdi
Monteverdi's lost Mantuan opera survives in Ariadne's lament — the cry of the woman Theseus abandoned on Naxos, before Bacchus' arrival.
Ariadne auf Naxos
Richard Strauss
Strauss and Hofmannsthal nest the abandoned Ariadne inside a backstage comedy — the mythic heroine who must choose mourning or the god of wine.
Bacchus and Ariadne
Albert Roussel
Roussel's ballet for the Paris Opéra dances the Naxos rescue — Ariadne found by Bacchus after Theseus' sail has gone.