The Barrel of the Danaids in the Underworld
Charles Le Brun captures the ultimate futile task in this dramatic Baroque drawing depicting the myth of the Danaids. Condemned to the underworld for murdering their husbands on their wedding night, forty-nine sisters are forced to carry water in jars to fill a massive, leaky vat—an endless cycle of labor that never gets the job done. You can see the physical strain in their poses as they haul heavy vessels up the rocky terrain, while water cascades uselessly from the bottom. It's the ancient Greek version of a 'Sisyphean task,' symbolizing a punishment of eternal frustration.
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