The Sacrifice of Iphigenia - Pompeo Batoni

Artist :

Batoni, Pompeo (1708-1787)

Date :

1741

Type of image :

Peinture sur toile

Topic :

Mythologie. Le sacrifice d’Iphigénie

Storage Location :

Edimbourg, National Galleries of Scotland

En dépôt au musée

Description

On the altar steps, dressed in blue and draped in red, Clytemnestra is fainting. In the left foreground, Agamemnon veils his face; unless Agamemnon is the horseman turning away on the right. At top left stands the statue of Diana holding her bow, a promise of divine intercession.

History :

1. The painting is neither signed nor dated.

2. The painting was loaned to the museum by the Count of Wemyss and March.
The family has owned the painting for over two centuries.
The painting appears for the 1st time in 1771 in the inventory of paintings at Amisfield, a mansion near Haddington built for Francis Charteris by Isaac Ware in the 1750's. It is believed that David, Lord Elcho, the elder brother of Francis Charteris, 5th Earl of Wemyss de jure, purchased and perhaps even commissioned the painting. Lord Elcho returned to Scotland in 1741, after a trip to Europe: he was able to visit the studio of Batoni, who was then a history painter and had not yet converted to the more lucrative portraits.

3. A reduced version of this composition exists in the collection of the Earl of Yarborough.

Indexed items :

Statue

Paysage à l’arrière-plan

Marches

Main masquant le visage

Les personnages font cercle autour de la scène

Estrade

Cheval

Arcade

Textual Sources :

Lucrèce, Titus Lucretius Carus (98av-55av)

De rerum natura, I, 80-101

OM12 - Métamorphoses d'Ovide - livre 12

Métamorphoses, 12, 1-38

Technical Data

Notice #001230

Image HD

Past ID :

A0549

Image editing :

Image optimisée par Esrgan

Reproduction interdite. Les notices sont la propriété de leurs auteurs et ne peuvent être reproduites ni faire l’objet de quelque transaction que ce soit sans leur autorisation expresse et écrite.