Antique Scene, Sacrifice with Bacchantes, Ancient Sculpture

Louise Pithoud French
 After Jean Guillaume Moitte French

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 690

Louise Pithoud produced many prints after Moitte during the French Revolution, including this one with a unique blue aquatint border made to mimic expensive blue paper. Here, muscled women and men approach a flaming altar with sacrifices—a bull, urns, garlands, and even a statue. Produced as the French Revolution intensified, this scene echoes the many real acts of donation that occurred at this time. Pithoud participated in the most famous of these on September 7, 1789. Organized by Adélaïde Castellas-Moitte, twenty-one women artists donated their jewelry to the National Assembly while dressed in white robes, evoking heroines of ancient Rome. Heralded in papers as "Citoyennes" (Citizenesses), through this act, they used their artistic status to further the cause of the revolution.

Antique Scene, Sacrifice with Bacchantes, Ancient Sculpture, Louise Pithoud (French, active 18th century), Aquatint, etching, and crayon manner engraving with blue printed border

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