Hermaphroditus and Salmacis

The subject is taken from Ovid’s Metamorphoses (4:285-388). A Hellenistic myth of oriental origin tells of a being who was half male, half female, the offspring of Hermes and Aphrodite (Mercury and Venus), hence his name. As a young man - he began life as a male - he once bathed in a lake, where Salmacis, one of Diana’s nymphs, dwelt. She fell in love with him at first sight and clung to him with such passion that their two bodies became united in one.

In Gossart’s painting the two figures stand in the water, Hermaphroditus trying to resist her embrace, while in the left background, the uniting couple is depicted. Throughout the 1510s and 1520s, Gossart continued to search for successful solutions to depict interlocking figures - whether in confrontation as here, or in amorous embrace, as in his drawings of Adam and Eve. The present painting shows Gossart’s early attempts in this regard.