The Sacrifice of Polyxena
As recounted by the ancient Roman poet Ovid, a compliant Polyxena is led to her death at a sacrificial altar to appease the ghost of the war hero Achilles. Le Brun painted this work the year after his return to Paris from studying in Rome and just a year prior to the founding of the French Royal Academy, which he would soon head. It captures the highbrow artistic ideals of seventeenth-century French academic painting: beautifully choreographed compositions that relay their narrative through a series of intense facial expressions and dramatic bodily gestures.
Artwork Details
- Title: The Sacrifice of Polyxena
- Artist: Charles Le Brun (French, Paris 1619–1690 Paris)
- Date: 1647
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 66 1/2 × 51 3/4 in. (168.9 × 131.4 cm)
- Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Purchase, 2012 Benefit Fund, and Bequest of Grace Wilkes and Fletcher Fund, by exchange, 2013
- Object Number: 2013.183
- Curatorial Department: European Paintings
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