John Armstrong

(British, 1893-1973)

Aphrodite's Handmaiden 30.5 x 46 cm. (12 x 18 1/8 in.) Painted circa 1963

Footnotes

Provenance
Private Collection, U.K.

Literature
Andrew Lambirth, John Armstrong: The Paintings, Philip Wilson, London, 2009, cat.no.704, p.222 (col.ill.)

Exhibited
Probably London, Molton & Lords, John Armstrong, 1963, ex catalogue


The present work can be dated stylistically and thematically to 1963, in close association with Danae (Private Collection), an important work of this period of Armstrong's career. Where Danae depicts a mythological tale, popularised by Ovid's Metamorphoses, of an innocent mother imprisoned and then exiled due to her father's paranoia, Aphrodite's Handmaiden is a reference to a real historical figure, Poppaea. Wife to Roman Emperor Nero in the 1st century AD, Poppaea fell victim to the emperor's infamous rage after a quarrel, and was tragically killed in the process. The work's title derives from the later myth that Aphrodite descended from Olympus in her chariot to deliver Poppaea's soul to the heavens.

These works come as part of a broader motif in Armstrong's work, that of injustice towards women, seen through the eyes of Antiquity. Further subject matters within this theme include various female figures related to Homer's Iliad, such as Leda, her daughter Helen of Troy, and Agamemnon's wife Clytemnestra.


We are grateful to Jonathan Gibbs for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.