Atalanta in the Bath (Woman in the Bath XII)
**Exhibiting and on sale from July at Quirky Fox Gallery, New Zealand**
60 x 80cm (23.6 x 31.5 inches) | oil on canvas. Completed in 2025.
“Atalanta in the Bath” (Woman in the Bath XII)
In the story of Atalanta, Hippomenes strategically used golden apples to distract her during their footrace. Atalanta, a swift and skilled huntress, had sworn to marry only a man who could outrun her. Aphrodite, the goddess of love, feeling spurned by Atalanta’s rejection of love, gave Hippomenes three golden apples to use as a distraction. During the race, Hippomenes dropped the apples, and Atalanta, unable to resist their allure, stopped to pick them up, allowing Hippomenes to win.
The golden apple is a potent symbol that appears across cultures and mythologies, representing a range of concepts including beauty, immortality, temptation, desire, and even conflict. Its significance often revolves around the idea of a prized, desirable object that can bring about both pleasure and consequences.
Later on Atalanta and her husband, overcome with passion, made love in a shrine of the goddess Cybele (or of Zeus), for which they were turned into lions.
In this scene, Atalanta is having a bath immediately after losing her footrace with her future husband to be.
I wanted to capture the moment of awakening of her sexuality and her state of being engulfed by temptation.
As a famed huntress goddess known for her running ability where she’s never lost to any men, She’s in a state of confusion after the lost race of discoveries of herself. Slipping towards temptation with her eyes glowing with gold.