The Nursing of Jupiter 

Théodore Chassériau made this drawing of "The Nursing of Jupiter" using graphite and gray wash, likely in France sometime in the mid-19th century. The image presents a classical subject, but it's filtered through the lens of its own time. We can see that Chassériau borrows from classical mythology – the infant Jupiter being hidden away and nursed to protect him from his father. But he's also clearly influenced by the artistic conventions of his era, particularly Romanticism's interest in emotion and drama. This was a period of immense social change, and there was a real hunger for art that spoke to those shifts. The artwork’s visual vocabulary and cultural references are fascinating. To truly understand art like this, we need to look at sources like exhibition reviews, artist biographies, and the writings of contemporary critics. What we can see is that the artist made something that speaks to both his own time and to timeless human concerns.