“Apollo’s Chariot” is a mythological painting by artist Odilon Redon, a notable exponent of the Symbolist movement. Executed using pastel on paper, the artwork measures 48 x 58 cm and is currently part of a private collection. The use of pastel allows for a rich interplay of texture and color, lending the artwork an ethereal and dream-like quality that is characteristic of Redon’s approach to art.
The artwork itself depicts a scene inspired by ancient mythology, harnessing the symbolic language of shapes and colors to evoke emotional resonance rather than strict representational accuracy. The central subjects, although not clearly defined through conventional realism, appear to be figures that could represent Apollo’s horses pulling a chariot, with an allusion to the vibrant energy and motion inherent in such a mythological narrative. Redon’s choice of colors, ranging from dark, earthy tones to vibrant blues and reds, creates a dynamic and atmospheric composition that seems to draw the viewer into a mysterious otherworld, where the familiar melds with the fantastic.
