The Pleiades 1885

Elihu Vedder made this painting of the Pleiades, the seven daughters of Atlas in Greek mythology, using oil paint. The artist applied thin glazes of color, a technique mastered during the Renaissance. This method involves building up layers of pigment suspended in oil, allowing light to penetrate and reflect back from lower levels. The resulting luminosity gives the figures an ethereal quality, making them seem almost translucent. The labor-intensive process of oil painting, with its careful blending and attention to detail, creates a sense of timelessness, while the female figures and the swirling cosmic background exude an otherworldly beauty, elevating the subject matter to a realm beyond the everyday. It’s easy to consider this painting as something purely aesthetic, but remember that materials, making, and context are crucial to understanding the full meaning of an artwork, and challenging the divide between fine art and craft.