Pandora, ca. 1914
Odilon Redon (French, 1840–1916)
Oil on canvas
Artist Biography
Technical Glossary
Odilon Redon (French, 1840–1916)
Oil on canvas
56 1/2 x 24 1/2 in. (143.5 x 62.2 cm)
Signed (lower right): ODILON REDON
Bequest of Alexander M. Bing, 1959 (60.19.1)
Between 1908 and 1914, Redon often turned to the mythic beauties Venus, Andromeda, and Pandora for subject matter. Here, he represented Pandora—the exquisite woman fashioned from clay by Vulcan and sent to earth by Jupiter—as a graceful nude amid a profusion of flowers. Her innocence still intact, Pandora cradles in her arms the box that, when opened, will unleash all the evils destined to plague mankind, thereby bringing to an end the legendary Golden Age.
