Being from Alabama, I would readily agree that my art admiration is fairly limited. It was not until the 1990s and I walked through a dozen art museums that I gained some amount of respect for the artsy culture.
The topic of Waterhouse came up today with ARD (German public TV, Channel One), and they wrote a short piece on this big debate going on within the UK and a museum up in Manchester, UK.
Some folks want the piece removed from public view.....some want it to stay in public view.
The piece is entitled: "Hylas and the Nymphs".
Where this all fits in? Well....Greek mythology.
You see, there was this young guy...Hylas, who was the son of a King (Theiodamas of the Dryopians).
The Dryopian crowd were a tribal group who lived in an area today referred to as Doris, Greece. It was a hilly area. Generally, it's accepted that this was where folks would go when they got expelled as a tribal unit and probably not exactly prime farming territory.
As the legend goes....at least the Romans say this....Hylas' father actually was Hercultes and his mother was some nymph called Melite. Nymphs, for the lesser intellectual folks....were young nimble ladies who were into natural stuff.....no pork or fatty beef....no beer...preferring to sing and dance....and were usually discussed as lusty maidens. Guys who made up stories and legends on nymphs....could lead you on for a full hour and make you weep over the fact that you never met a nymph. In simple terms,nymphs were like Madonna, Marilyn Monroe and Wonder Woman all tied into one.
As the story goes....at some point, King Heracles took on Hylas to be a guy to carry his sword for him and later taught him the fine art of warrior-stuff. The Hylas kid respected King Heracles.
At some in the travels of the Hylas kid...he ended up being kidnapped by nymph-gals at the springs of Pegae. There at the springs, romance blossomed and Hylas got some nymph-gal by the name of Mysia all hyped up.
According to legend, this Hylas kid just up and vanished, with Mysia. King Heracles was all disturbed about the young lad and searched for a fair amount of time for him....never finding him.
No one says much about statues going up for Hylas, or his gal Mysia....but around the campfire for years and years...folks would describe the young lad out on some big adventure in life and falling for the nymph-gal.
The picture painted? Well, some guy sat and imagined the scene and how Hylas just stood there in some moment of awe. Today....2018....the image of these nymph-gals is such....that it's better not to imagine such women. Well....that's what some Brit folks say.
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