Midas was a king of great fortune, great vanity, and even greater avarice. In the popular Greek myth, he found a satyr asleep in his rose gardens and recognized him as a companion of Dionysus, the god of wine and revelry. Midas treated the satyr to ten days of feasting and celebration, and on the eleventh day returned him to the grateful god Dionysus who, in turn, granted Midas one wish. Being a king of excessive wealth and exceptional greed, Midas wished for all he touched to be turned to gold, then paraded through his castle touching every statue and trinket he could, admiring his clever reflection in the golden walls. It is this moment that “The Touch of Midas” depicts. Soon after, the king would come to regret his wish, atoning for his vanity and greed after realizing he could not eat tasteless gold, nor sleep on hard metal pillows. Here, Midas’s touch is merely gold paint, and the artist takes on the role of Midas by using the same brush and tube of paint seen at the center of the composition, turning a bare panel surface into a painting of gold.
By changing Midas’s wish to a boon of artistic skill, this painting explores the parable’s moral message as it relates to the ancient Greek ideas of creativity. In Greek mythology, art and creativity were the result of divine inspiration, and as Midas has learned, shouldn’t be hoarded, but shared with the world. The artist has also hand built the tabernacle frame housing this painting, with thin columns and large base and entablature emulating ancient Greek architecture. The inside of this frame is painted with the same gold paint featured in the artwork.
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