Fall of Titans (c1589). Oil on canvas. 239 x 307. The Fall of the Titans is an oil painting of the Titanomachy by the Dutch painter Cornelis van Haarlem in 1588-1590. It measures. The work is in the collection of the Statens Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark. It is an ambitious work of the Haarlem Mannerists, and a display of the artist's ability to devise and depict a large number of varied poses for the male nudes. In Greek mythology, the Titans were members of the second generation of divine beings, descending from the primordial deities and preceding the Olympians. Based on Mount Othrys, the Titans most famously included the first twelve children of Gaia and Uranus. They ruled during the legendary Golden Age, and also comprised the first pantheon of Greek deities. Just as the Titan Cronus overthrew his father Uranus, the Titans were overthrown by Cronus's children, the core Olympian deities, in the Titanomachy, at the end of which they were imprisoned in Tartarus, a Greek version of Hell. Their arrival there is depicted in the painting. The painting was bought by King Christian IV of Denmark in 1621, and followed most of the royal collection into public ownership in the Statens Museum in the 19th century.
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