Medea and the beautiful Argonaut, the first human Cain Romulus and Remus nursed by the same she-wolf, Vulcan who loves Venus who loves Mars Eve and the Apple of the Tree of Temptation and the most human of emotions that inspired the painters

1. For as long as humans have been around, they've been going about the business of making more humans. (Obviously.)
And tied up in that is the messy business of relationships, of the most intense emotions …

2. Medea and the beautiful Argonaut,
the first human Cain
Romulus and Remus nursed by the same she-wolf,
Vulcan who loves Venus who loves Mars
Eve and the Apple of the Tree of Temptation
and
the most human of emotions that inspired the painters

3. from Rubens to Munch, passing through Delacroix, Ingres or Gauguin ...

4. Jealousy
in paintings

5. The Book of Genesis 4:1–8, this was the first jealous murder in human history.
Jealous fratricide …
According to the biblical story, God was pleased with Abel’s offering of a lamb,
but not with Cain’s offering of some leftover harvest
Cain, disappointed and enraged, killed his brother in the field.
There is the jealous triangle of Cain, Abel and God, and Cain’s heightened emotional reaction
when he feels the threat of losing God’s love to Abel.
Peter Paul Rubens
Cain Slaying Abel
Caïn tuant Abel
1608-1609
The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

8. A landscape is monochrome, dark ...
Abel sacrificed, as it were, on his own altar.
He is already bleeding from a gaping head wound,
and next Cain will strike him with the splintered end of his club.
The tree trunk separates the scene of the fighting men from the scene in the lower portion:
the decapitated head of a calf,
and Cain himself fleeing, with the staff of a wayfarer over his shoulders,
an allusion to the first steps taken by humanity as it moves further and further
from terrestrial paradise.
Tintoretto Le Tintoret
Cain and Abel also The Murder of Abel, and The Death of Abel
Caïn tuant Abel ou Le Meurtre d'Abel
1551-1552
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

11. According to the Bible, the older brothers who were jealous of their father's
love sell Joseph to the Ishmailites (Book IV of the Old Testament).
the most tragic scene of the betrayal. Joseph, stripped to the waist,
is seized and led to the white-robed merchants who have just arrived.
Károly Ferenczy
Joseph Sold into Slavery by his Brothers
Joseph vendu comme esclave par ses frères
1900
Magyar Nemzeti Galéria, Budapest

14. The jealousy of Judas ...
why Judas betrayed Christ ?
Greed is the most obvious answer.
But jealousy may well have had something to do with it too.
Judas was jealous of the apostles, of the attention the other Apostles were getting.
Or perhaps Judas was jealous of Christ himself.
...
Judas, with the Devil at his back and holding a sack of gold.
But it is not only Satan at work here.
Judas wears a yellow robe. In Giotto's days yellow was the color of jealousy ...
Judas, then, is jealous.
Giotto di Bondone
No. 28 Scenes from the Life of Christ: 12. Judas' Betrayal
N.28 Scènes de la vie du Christ: 12. La trahison de Judas
1304-1306
Cappella Scrovegni (Arena Chapel), Padua

17. The jealous ...
Christ humbly kneeling , the adulterous woman and an aggressive Pharisee leaning.
...
In John 8, the Pharisees bring an adulterous woman to Jesus at the temple
and ask him what punishment they should mete out to her.
According to the law passed down by Moses, she should be stoned to death.
It’s really a trap. The Pharisees want both the woman and Jesus brought to heel:
the woman, because she’s an adulterous sinner, and Jesus, because he’s getting too big.
They’re jealous of his influence, his teaching and his renown,
authority within the community.
The Pharisees ask Jesus again and again what he thinks, ‘tempting him’,
to break Mosaic Law by protecting the woman, so ‘they might have to accuse him’.
Jesus writes on the ground, and says:
‘He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.’
Pieter Bruegel the Elder Pieter Brueghel l'Ancien
Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery
Le Christ et la Femme adultère
1565
Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, London

21. Saul's jealousy …
and David sallied out with the Israelites to fight the Philistines,
and David defeated the Philistines,
and the people sang ‘Saul has killed thousands and David has killed tens of thousands’.
Saul grew jealous then
and
Saul wanted David to perish now.
...
one day, when David was playing the harp in Saul’s palace
and
Saul tried to pin David to the wall with his spear, but David avoided the thrust
and the lance stuck in the wall.
Guercino
Saul Attacking David
Saül attaque David
1646
Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome

24. The Jealousy of Cronus,
one version of family jealousy ...
The Greek god Cronus (Saturn, in Roman mythology) ate five of his six children as soon as they were born.
Cronus had learned that one of them would overthrow him as ruler of the universe.
He was not afraid of his children as much as he was jealous of what they represented:
a youth and strength that he was beginning to lose
…
The emphasis on Cronos' eyes – the whites of them matching the white pallor of his son's flesh –
emphasizes the jealousy at his heart.
Francisco de Goya
Saturn
Saturne
1819-1823
Museo del Prado, Madrid

27. The jealous Medea ...
first killed her sexual rival Glauce by sending her a dress that had been smeared in poison.
Then, Medea jealously avenges Jason's betrayal by killing killing the two children
The maternal instinct is rejected in favour of the playing out of jealousy and of sexual revenge.
...
Moment of high tension that precedes the crime.
The young woman knows she is being hunted and looks worried.
Her children are struggling to escape her clutches.
A dark shadow partly masks her face, representing the madness that blinds her.
Eugène Delacroix
Médée
Medea
1838
Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, Lille

29. A death by terrible jealousy ...
Tereus, requests his son´s presence
and
the two women, show him the head of the victim as one more of the plates at the banquet.
…
Tereus, King of Thrace raped his sister-in-law, Philomela, cutting out her tongue in order
to avoid being denounced. But when Philomela weaves a tapestry, her sister Procne
discovers the atrocious event.
Philomela protests to Tereus before being silenced,
‘I have become a concubine, my sister’s rival’, thereby signaling a sexual jealousy.
‘Procne driven mad by jealousy … she took Itys and killed him and after cooking him served
him up to Tereus’.
Jealousy of whom? ... of her husband? or jealousy of her sister?
Or does the jealousy find a second target in Itys, his father’s lookalike,
as if the child were the erring partner?
Peter Paul Rubens and workshop, atelier
Tereus' Banquet or Tereus Confronted with the Head of his Son
Le banquet de Térée ou Térée confronté à la tête de son fils Itys
1636-1638
Museo del Prado, Madrid

33. A veritable vaudeville scene ...
Amor or Cupid, who is not entirely blameless himself, pretends to be asleep,
lover Mars is hiding helmeted under a bed
and
Vulcan,
who has limped out of his forge, to see whether, as he fears,
adultery has actually been committed,
is distracted by his wife's naked body, disregarding the warnings of his dog.
Jacopo Tintoretto Le Tintoret
Mars and Venus Surprised by Vulcan
Mars et Vénus surpris par Vulcain
1551-1552
Alte Pinakothek, Munich

36. Zeus arranged a marriage banquet and, wanting to keep the party calm,
did not invite the goddess Eris, goddess of discord.
Snubbed, Eris came anyway and brought trouble with her:
a golden apple on which was inscribed ‘for the most beautiful woman’.
She threw the apple into the midst of the celebration.
Hera, Athena and Aphrodite all insisted that the apple was addressing them personally.
Zeus appointed Paris, the son of Priam, king of Troy, to arbitrate their claims.
Aphrodite triumphed ...
So,
Menelaus’s jealousy over losing his wife to Paris,
Hera’s and Athena’s jealousy of their rival’s success in the contest
Eris’s jealousy of the other gods’ jollity that leads her to gatecrash the party,
and
the three goddesses jealousy of one another’s beauty.
Lucas Cranach the Elder Lucas Cranach l'Ancien
The Judgment of Paris
Le Jugement de Pâris
1528
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Manhattan, New York City

38. Galatea, a sea nymph, lived near the island inhabited by the the one- eyed Cyclops Polyphemus.
He had really fallen for her, but she loved the young shepherd Acis.
One day Polyphemus caught the young lovers sleeping near one another and became jealous.
He killed Acis by crushing him beneath a boulder.
Gustave Moreau shows an almost grandfatherly Polyphemus staring intently
and somewhat angrily at the naked Galatea sleeping in her cave.
Gustave Moreau
Galatée
Galatea
1880
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

40. The giant’s jealous stare ...
has a little smirk, too;
perhaps he is pleased to be spying on the naked Galatea,
or maybe he has just pulped Acis and reckons himself free evermore to stalk Galatea
without interruption.
The focus in the painting is on that one, huge, deep blue eye.
For Redon, Polyphemus’s single staring orb captures the jealousy that Galatea provokes.
It’s all ...
Odilon Redon
The Cyclops
Le cyclope
1914
Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo

43. One day, they wanted to found their own city
and
they agreed to wait for a sign from the gods
and
Romulus, appointed by the heavens, began ploughing a furrow around the site of the new settlement
and
Remus got jealous
and
leaped the sacred line
and
Romulus killed his brother.
…
Rome was officially founded on April 21, 753 BC.
Peter Paul Rubens workshop atelier
Romulus killing Remus
Romulus tue Remus
1635-1650
National Museum Cardiff, Amgueddfa Cymru Museum Wales, Wales

45. And the contest began …
Athena’s tapestry depicted the power of the Olympian gods and the punishments
suffered by human beings who were arrogant enough to challenge them.
Arachne, chose to create a tapestry prophetically depicting the suffering of humans
at the hands of jealous gods.
Who won?
Athena took pity on her, after a fashion, and transformed her into a spider.
Peter Paul Rubens
Pallas and Arachne also known as Minerva Punishing Arachne
Pallas et Arachné
1636-1637
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond

48. Malatesta, Francesca’s jealous husband, draws the sword ...
Paolo and gorgeous Francesca meet,
read about Lancelot and his adulterous affair with Guinevere,
kiss
and
are about to be murdered ...
Auguste-Dominique Ingres
Paolo et Francesca
Paolo and Francesca
1819
Musée des beaux-arts, Angers

50. Alexander, the king of Macedon,
passionately enamored of his captive, Campaspe, he asks Apelles,
his court painter, to paint her portrait
... and he becomes suspicious of Apelles and angrily jealous.
But finally he is moved to allow the lovers to marry because,
as he says,
a man who cannot command himself is unworthy to command the world.
Jacques-Louis David
Apelles Painting Campaspe in the Presence of Alexander the Great
Apelles peignant Campaspe en presence d’Alexandre
1810
Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, Lille

53. On the shore two sisters are lying after bathing,
they speak of yesterday's love and tomorrow's conquests.
The recollection causes them to quarrel, What? Are you jealous? …
This jealousy is not the product of a threat to an exclusive sexual relationship
or jilted love affair –
it is the result of one of the sisters having enjoyed more sex than the other the night before.
Paul Gaugin
Aha Oe Feii ? Eh quoi ! Tu es jalouse ?
Aha Oe Feii? or Are You Jealous?
1892
Pushkin Museum, Moscow

56. Iago's jealousy ...
The plot, and Othello’s jealousy, takes an ever- more violent route.
Aided and abetted by Iago in the establishment of his jealousy, Othello strangles his blameless wife.
Iago – himself jealous – is exposed and Othello kills him, then himself.
...
Was Iago jealous of Othello?
Yes, Iago's jealousy of Othello is a central theme in William Shakespeare's play "Othello.
Iago's jealousy manifests in his devious and manipulative actions.
He plots to destroy Othello's life, reputation, and marriage by manipulating those around him,
exploiting their weaknesses and insecurities.
He plants seeds of doubt in Othello's mind about Desdemona's faithfulness,
ultimately leading to tragic consequences.
Alexandre-Marie Colin
Othello and Desdemona
Othello et Desdémone
1829
New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans

59. a 'flirtatious' woman
and
a 'jealous' woman
a woman smiling at the man,
and
a woman looking at the man and woman who seem happy
Thomas William Roberts
Jealousy
Jalousie
1889
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

62. A jealous woman, a painter and a model …
A painter's wife watches her husband while he paints a model.
(A painter’s studio: a place of inspiration, creativity and possible dangerous relationships.)
Giacomo Favretto
The jealous wife
La femme jalouse
1873
Collection privée

64. Edvard Munch
Jealousy
Jealousy, passion, the biblical allegory of temptation, and an autobiographical incident converge in Munch's work,
recurring in paintings at different times.
The first painting was executed in 1895 ...

65. Jealousy in its purest form ...
Eve is reaching up to pick an apple for Adam
and
a bearded man looks directly at the viewer
This painting brings together the Adam and Eve theme
with the portrayal of Stanislaw Przybyszewski, a Polish writer,
whose wife Dagny Juel was a model for many of Munch’s paintings.
Munch had an affair with Juel ...
Edvard Munch
Jealousy
Jalousie
1895
KODE Art museums and composer homes,
Bergen Kunstmuseum (Rasmus Meyer's Collection), Bergen

69. Here's a dismayed man with a frozen stare:
the New Eve struts before the tree of temptation,
her body offered to a stranger, or to a rival.
Edvard Munch
Jealousy
Jalousie
1907
Munch Museum, Oslo

73. One woman between two men ...
At the time the picture was painted,
Jealousy related to Juel was already a distant story.
The appearance of a femme fatale in Munch’s later works
is linked to his tension-filled relationship with his lover, Tulla Larson;
their quarrels still tormented the artist many years after their separation.
Edvard Munch
Jealousy
Jalousie
1913
Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main

76. Jealousy in paintings
La jalousie dans la peinture
images and text credit www.
Music The Piano Guys Limitless
created olga_oes
thanks for watching
Merci M.C., merci Michel