Danaides by John William Waterhouse Tie

The Danaides by John William Waterhouse, oil on canvas 1903, is a vintage Pre-Raphaelite painting of a procession of women carrying and pouring large urns of water into a basin from which water pours from the bottom. Waterhouse paints the scene with a near classical sense of low relief under a patina of deep, rich colour, particularly the deep ultramarine blue robes. The Danaides in Greek mythology were the daughters of Danaus who were forced to marry the sons of Aegyptus, a mythical king of Egypt. All but one of the fifty women killed their grooms. As punishment, the gods condemned them to the underworld of Tartarus, where they eternally pour water into a perforated basin, a classical symbol of futility.