Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Aristaeus.
The gallery
Aristaeus, God of the Gardens (Aristée, dieu des jardins)
François-Joseph Bosio, 1817
This monumental marble (2.16 m), the principal image on Aristaeus's Wikipedia article, presents the rustic culture-god as an idealized neoclassical nude. Bosio, court sculptor to the Bourbon restoration, depicts the son of Apollo and the nymph Cyrene in a pose of athletic repose, embodying his role as patron of herding, the olive, cheese-making and beekeeping. First modelled in plaster for the Salon of 1812 and carved in marble for the Salon of 1817, the work was bought by Louis XVIII and remains in the Department of Sculptures of the Musée du Louvre, Paris.
The Shepherd Aristaeus Mourning the Loss of His Bees (Le berger Aristée pleurant la perte de ses abeilles)
Ernest-Eugène Hiolle, 1862
Hiolle's plaster figure dramatizes the central episode of Aristaeus's myth as told in Virgil's Georgics IV: the keeper of the bees, whose entire stock has perished, sinks in grief beside an empty hive. The dejected pose and downcast head translate the pastoral god's loss into Romantic pathos, foreshadowing his appeal to his mother Cyrene and the sacrifice that will regenerate the swarm. The model was created for the Prix de Rome sculpture competition and is held by the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris.
The Shepherd Aristaeus Mourning the Loss of His Bees (Le berger Aristée pleurant la perte de ses abeilles)
Jules Fesquet, 1862
Fesquet treated the same Prix de Rome subject as Hiolle in the contest of 1862, winning the second prize. His seated, grieving Aristaeus again derives from Virgil's Georgics, where the bee-keeping god loses his hives as punishment for his pursuit of Eurydice. The nude shepherd is shown collapsed in sorrow over his ruined apiary, a study in academic anatomy and controlled emotion. The plaster is preserved in the Musée Granet, Aix-en-Provence.
Cup with Eurydice, Aristaeus and Orpheus (Coppa con Euridice, Aristeo e Orfeo)
Francesco Xanto Avelli, c. 1531
This istoriato maiolica cup from Urbino, painted by the celebrated Renaissance ceramicist Francesco Xanto Avelli, illustrates the myth that binds Aristaeus to the tragedy of Orpheus and Eurydice. Following Virgil's Georgics, Aristaeus pursues Eurydice, who is fatally bitten by a serpent as she flees; her death sets Orpheus's descent into motion, while a winged Cupid bearing a torch presides over the scene. The narrative composition exemplifies the storytelling ambition of Urbino lustreware. The dish belongs to the applied-arts collections of the Castello Sforzesco, Milan.