Ariadne

Jean-Baptiste Greuze's Ariadne of 1803, one of his late mythological works, depicts the Cretan princess abandoned by Theseus on the island of Naxos, her grief and isolation rendered with the sentimental intensity that characterized all his female subjects. By 1803 Greuze was in his seventies, his reputation from the moralizing genre scenes of the 1760s long established but his commercial success diminished by the Revolutionary upheaval. The late mythological works show him maintaining technical fluency while adapting familiar emotional vocabulary to classical subject matter.

Greuze renders the abandoned heroine with the soft, porcelain-like flesh painting and the teary, sentimental expression that characterized his distinctive style. The loose drapery and intimate scale reflect his Rococo-era training.