mysteriousartcentury:William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905), Biblis, oil on canvas, 50 x 80.5 cm. In
mysteriousartcentury:William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905), Biblis, oil on canvas, 50 x 80.5 cm. In a private collection.-In Greek mythology, Biblis, daughter of Miletus, fell in love with her twin brother, Caunus. Though she realized that her feelings were taboo, she could not help but try to woo him and sent him a letter citing examples of incest among the Gods. Repelled and afraid, Caunus fled, driving Biblis mad and prompting her to shed her clothes and chase him through Greece and Anatolia, crying incessantly. Exhausted by grief and sorrow, she collapses, perishes and is transformed by nymphs into a spring, or according to other acccounts, is simply consumed by her tears and becomes a fountain. In either outcome, Bouguereau represents Biblis in her penultimate moment.Bouguereau writes: “Among my paintings, “Biblis” is one that I love the most, one that I most enjoyed painting; this even though it was inspired by an incident in the atelier. One of my female models had just asked to rest from a tiring pose; when the young woman was in the process of standing up, she instinctively found herself in a pose so beautiful that I stopped her with a gesture and a shout, begging her to hold the pose for just an instant longer. I sketched her immediately, very quickly… I had seen my “Biblis.” It is one of my best paintings”. -- source link