The allegory of the element of FIRE (Ignis) by Luka RudmanPosavje Museum Brežice
The allegory of the element of FIRE (Ignis) on the south side of the vaulted section where the wall meets the ceiling inside the Knights' Hall depicts the forge of Hephaestus.
HephaestusPosavje Museum Brežice
Hephaestus, crippled and lame, one of the twelve Olympians, the son of Zeus and Hera, brother of Ares, Hebe and Eileithyia, is the master of the element of fire and metals, the patron of craftsmen, sculptors and metallurgy.
As a lame god of fire, patron of blacksmithing and handicrafts, and the embodiment of fire, he is portrayed in his earthly smithy, right beside the blazing forge and bent over the anvil.
Wielding a hammer and gasping, along with his two helpers, as he forges a thunderbolt for his father, Zeus, the king of all gods of Mount Olympus.
In the background of Hephaestus' smithy, Remb painted an antique shield with a spear, juxtaposed by a cannon, a fearsome new-age gun mounted on wheels, which does not have its roots in antiquity, however, but rather in the painter's day, the late 17th century.
Born crippled and misshapen
Hephaestus was rejected by his mother, Hera. He is well known for legends portraying him as a famous blacksmith: he helped deliver Athena, who was trapped in the head of Zeus. On Zeus's order, he chained Prometheus to the Caucasus mountains and fashioned the body of the first woman, Pandora, from mud.
The allegory of the element of FIRE (Ignis) by Luka RudmanPosavje Museum Brežice
He ensnared his unfaithful wife Aphrodite and her lover Ares in an invisible chain-link net, and he made a golden throne for his mother, Hera, from which she could not stand up.
He breathed magical power into the pieces he forged so as to gain control over their recipients – he punished them for bad deeds and rewarded them for good deeds.
Since beautiful ladies were fascinated by his masterpieces, mostly jewellery, he had a very successful love life – in spite of his lameness.
He was a god who could bring the inanimate to life and the other way round – and one who consistently achieved unequalled successes in blacksmithing and love despite being physically handicapped.
Alenka Černelič Krošelj, Director of the Posavje Museum Brežice
Oži Lorber, curator at art history department
Andreja Matijevc, cultural programme coordinatorVirtual tour through the Knight's Hall: https://www.pmb.si/virtualni-sprehod
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