In David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, Laura Palmer and Donna Hayward travel north with Buck and Tommy to a backroom bar called The Power and The Glory. This sparsely decorated club is bathed in a pink hue. In a moment of clarity, Laura rushes to save her best friend Donna from falling deeper into darkness. Thank to fellow Bookhouse Boy Matthew Haywood, we now know the painting hanging on a wall behind Donna was originally created by Rembrandt in the 1600s.
REMBRANDT’S ‘DANAË’ AT THE POWER AND THE GLORY
While in a booth with Buck and Ronette Pulaski at The Power and The Glory, Laura Palmer sees Tommy kissing Donna’s body sprawled over a table. She notices Donna had picked up her jacket and immediately rushes over.
While Laura is scolding Donna for “wearing her stuff,” there is an ornate framed painting located on the wall behind them. Matthew did a quick reverse image search and discovered the work was by Dutch artist Rembrandt van Rijn.
Titled, “Danaë,” Rembrandt first completed this painting in 1636 but reworked it seven years later in 1643. The image is a life-size depiction of the mother of Perseus from Greek mythology named Danaë. She may be welcoming Zeus who, “impregnated her in the form of a shower of gold.” Rembrandt’s wife Saskia was the original model for Danaë, but he later changed the figure’s face to that of his mistress Geertje Dircx.
The original painting has been hanging in the Hermitage Museum, in St. Petersburg, Russia since the 18th century.
It was severely damaged on June 15, 1985 when Bronius Maigys, a Soviet Lithuanian national, threw sulfuric acid on the canvas and cut it twice with a knife. Staff of The State Hermitage’s Laboratory of Expert Restoration of Easel Paintings completely restored the painting between 1985 and 1997.
Aside from a white neon martini glass, this painting is the only discernible artwork from The Power and The Glory set in Southern California.
Thank you to Matthew for his eagle eyes!
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Great work Matthew!
There is a painting of the Danaë also hanging at One-Eyed Jack’s, when Cooper and Harry go to rescue Audrey, that one is Danaë and the Shower of Gold by Titian. Several pieces of Titian’s work can be seen hanging on the brothel’s walls, including The Fall of Man and Don’t Touch Me (Stop Touching Me). The one I found most interesting, however, was his Venus with a Mirror. That same piece can also be seen in Hitchcock’s “Psycho” under the taxidermy of an owl.
It interested me because I’ve been working on the theory that what was shown happening between Laura and Leland actually happened between Audrey and Ben instead and the result was the dreamer, Billy, whom masks himself as his mother’s protector, Dale Cooper, inside of his fantasy. The “owls” are really the Hornes. In Venus with a Mirror, Venus is in the same position as the Venus seen in the Red Room. Audrey was referenced as being a Botticelli-like beauty in the original script to the Pilot. It struck me also because Audrey’s last seen occurs with her staring into a mirror.
The Danaë theme and its usage of gold is fascinating to me because I think the dreamer (Billy) views his mother as staying with the father for material comfort, and the impregnation by gold aligns with that, as does Audrey being the Queen of Diamonds and a certain plot point occurring after she tied herself to the bank.