Corregio, Rembrandt, and Titian are hard acts to follow, as they each paint Danaë in their own unique way, perhaps that is why no one attempted to paint her for three hundred years. Yet, Klimt’s Danaë differs from the rest in the emotion it evokes. Opposed to a sprawling scene that can be viewed in either Titian’s or Rembrandt’s, Klimt’s canvas is enveloped with Danaë’s body and presence. Danaë curls into a fetal pose creating a sense of maternal care and development. She represents a pure love untainted by worldly corruption.

Danaë was born to King of Argos and his wife Eurydice; however the king wanted a son and asked the Oracle if his fate would change. The oracle instead told him that his daughter’s son would end up killing him, but at the time Danaë was childless. No grandfather wants to be killed by his grandson, so of course the only option is to lock your daughter up in a tower. That doesn’t stop Zeus though from coming in the form of golden rain and impregnating her. She later births a baby boy named Perseus, and they are both cast out of Argos and put in a wooden box in the sea. Zeus takes care of his baby mama, though, and asks Poseidon to calm the sea in order for the two to survive. They wash ashore to Seriphos and a man named Dictys raises Perseus. As usual, Dictys gets the hots for Danaë, and he agrees not to pursue her as long as Perseus will slay Medusa. Perseus is triumphant and plans to return home until he hears about the athletic games being held in Larissa. There he sees the elderly king, his grandfather, and while participating in discus, he accidently strikes the king in the head fulfilling the prophecy. As my dear friend Justin Timberlake would say, what goes around, goes, goes around, comes all the way back around. 

Klimt does give homage to the masters’ paintings of Danaë as he paints her with her leg up alike to Titian’s. He does not attempt to hide the erotic scene and paints the rain in his famous gold as to highlight the act. Her eyes are closed and her lips slightly parted as she delights in affection of Zeus. The thin purple veil alludes to royalty in her lineage and the foreshadowing of the godchild to come.