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| The Sacrifice of Polyxena |
Artist:Charles Le Brun (French, Paris 1619–1690 Paris)
Date:1647
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:70 × 51 3/4 in. (177.8 × 131.4 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Purchase, 2012 Benefit Fund, and Bequest of Grace Wilkes and Fletcher Fund, by exchange, 2013
As recounted by the Roman poet Ovid (43 B.C.–A.D. 17/18), the compliant Polyxena is led to her death at the sacrificial altar to appease the ghost of the hero Achilles. Her mother tries to restrain her while the soldier Neoptolemus raises his sword. The infant holding a chest of incense and the austere priest complete this beautifully choreographed composition, which was painted the year following Le Brun’s return from Rome. The artist became the official painter to Louis XIV and a leading figure in the academy. He later wrote a treatise on expressions and this enormously influential focus of his art is well in evidence in this early masterpiece.
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