‘Prometheus Unbound’: The return of a forgotten masterpiece
The monumental painting “Prometheus Unbound” by Danish artist Carl Bloch, first mentioned in January 2023, is now on display at the Pavlos and Alexandra Canellopoulos Museum (CAMU) in Athens.
The painting, part of the former Royal Tatoi Estate, was temporarily loaned to Denmark for a major retrospective at the Statens Museum for Kunst (SMK) in Copenhagen, attracting large crowds eager to see the work, which had been considered lost for many years.
The painting (3.98 x 2.77 meters), created in 1864 for King George I, who commissioned it on his appointment to the Greek throne in 1863, depicts Prometheus freeing himself from the chains imposed on him by Zeus, while Hercules has just killed the eagle, which devoured daily the Titan’s liver.
It was last seen publicly in 1932, but in 2012, it was rediscovered at the Tatoi Palace and has since undergone extensive conservation. The current exhibition in Athens presents the history of the painting, its creation, and its artistic significance, along with modern interpretations of the Promethean myth in art.
