Editor's Note: For their final project, the students in Modern Art History held an art fantasy draft of seven works. These works then become an exhibit based around a subject. Enjoy, as the posts should delight all through the summer. 


Water Graves 

Narcissus Contemplating His Image Mirrored in the Water, Francois Lemoyne, 1725-1728

“Here Narcissus, tired of hunting and the heated noon, lay down, attracted by the peaceful solitudes and by the glassy spring. There as he stooped to quench his thirst another thirst increased. While he is drinking he beholds himself reflected in the mirrored pool—and loves; loves an imagined body which contains no substance, for he deems the mirrored shade a thing of life to love. He cannot move, for so he marvels at himself, and lies with countenance unchanged, as if indeed a statue carved of Parian marble.” Metamorphoses, Ovid 

In Narcissus Contemplating His Image Mirrored in the Water, Francois Lemoyne recounts one of Ovid’s most popular myths: that of Narcissus, his reflection, and the nymph Echo. We encounter Narcissus perched on a riverbank, lost in the reflection of his eyes. So moved by his own image, Narcissus becomes paralyzed like a statue, transfixed by the handsome specter in the water. His reflection is almost a siren, drawing the man closer and closer to the water with a sense-pleasing vision. In Lemoyne’s work, and in Ovid’s myth, Narcissus does not drown, but dies of the sadness that accompanies falling in impossible love.

As this collection is entitled Illusions of Drowning, we must clear the image of man plunging to the bottom of the ocean floor. Instead, let’s look at how Narcissus drowns in his own psyche. When he encounters his reflection, he loses all sense of reality. The world falls away as he falls deeper and deeper into his self-absorption—a metaphorical drowning. Lemoyne paints Narcissus’ gestures and fabric as to flow to the left of the composition, his downward glance at the mirrored river the only stationary and straight aspect of the painting. The background—moving trees, flowing fabrics, a swirling sky—resembles waves of water, yet the actual water in the painting is still and calm. This draws further attention to center of the composition, where Narcissus is rendered statuesque in the presence of his unwavering reflection. Forever doomed to an afterlife of insatiable desire, Narcissus still stares at his reflection in the waters of the river Styx.