3-092-902 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Le Supplice de Tantale, 1842. Hélas! plus d'un de nous en la verte jeunesse, A vu devant son nez passer tous les plaisirs; Sans pouvoir de ses dents qui s'aiguisaient sans cesse: Comme Tantale en sa détresse, Mordre à l'objet de ses désirs. Résignation par M. Ste. Beuve. (Torment of Tantalus. Alas, none of us in vigorous youth has seen such pleasure before his nose, powerless, with teeth that were constantly sharpened, to bite, like Tantalus in his distress, at the object of his desires. (Resignation of Monsieur Sainte-Beuve).) Tantalus, son of Zeus, was punished by Zeus by having to endure torments. Daumier's sufferings of Tantalus show him shackled as champagne, goose-liver paté, and fish float past him. A pre-surrealistic bunch of grapes in the shape of a face appears before him.