Art Detective

By Alexandra Smith "Cleobis and Biton" is an intensely dramatic artwork painted in 1884 by Carl Ernst von Stetten (1857-1942). I’ve been thinking about it for months, ever since it stole the show in 'Renaissance, Romanticism, and Rebellion' at the Mint Museum Uptown location. The scene is set at a Greek temple, stone columns rising in the background. Two young men lie together, seemingly unconscious, on top of a red blanket. They are each wearing a crown of laurels and a loin