- Nicolas Maureau
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- Phyllis and Aristotle
Phyllis and Aristotle (2014) Original Oil Painting by Nicolas Maureau
38.19 x 51.18 x 0.79" / 38.19 x 51.18" (actual image size)
$3,364.5
Original artwork description
A philosopher reduced to four legs and a rider holding the reins: Phyllis and Aristotle gives Nicolas Maureau's interpretation of a scene medieval audiences loved, Phyllis riding Aristotle, read for centuries as a simple metaphor for love triumphing over reason.
The story usually plays as comedy, the wise man humbled by desire, but the painting holds onto the discomfort underneath the joke rather than resolving it. Reason doesn't just lose here, it's made to carry someone, made physically subordinate in a way the medieval version treated as moralizing spectacle and this one treats more as a quiet standoff.
Placed within the Scènes de Genre series, the scene becomes less about warning men against seduction than about who gets to hold power over whom, and how easily that power can be reversed.
Materials used:
oil painting
Details:
- Oil painting on Canvas
- One of a kind artwork
- Size: 38.19 x 51.18 x 0.79" / 38.19 x 51.18" (actual image size)
- Ready to hang
- Signed on the back
- Style: Photorealistic
- Subject: People and portraits
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Original artwork description
A philosopher reduced to four legs and a rider holding the reins: Phyllis and Aristotle gives Nicolas Maureau's interpretation of a scene medieval audiences loved, Phyllis riding Aristotle, read for centuries as a simple metaphor for love triumphing over reason.
The story usually plays as comedy, the wise man humbled by desire, but the painting holds onto the discomfort underneath the joke rather than resolving it. Reason doesn't just lose here, it's made to carry someone, made physically subordinate in a way the medieval version treated as moralizing spectacle and this one treats more as a quiet standoff.
Placed within the Scènes de Genre series, the scene becomes less about warning men against seduction than about who gets to hold power over whom, and how easily that power can be reversed.
Materials used:
oil painting
Details:
- Oil painting on Canvas
- One of a kind artwork
- Size: 38.19 x 51.18 x 0.79" / 38.19 x 51.18" (actual image size)
- Ready to hang
- Signed on the back
- Style: Photorealistic
- Subject: People and portraits
