Art Institute of Chicago

Virgil Reading the "Aeneid" to Augustus, Octavia, and Livia

Jean Baptiste Joseph Wicar (French, 1762–1834)LinkedCulture matchlcp-f685c4641286

Date: 1790–93
Medium: Oil on canvas
Culture: France
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Institution: Art Institute of Chicago
Object ID: 17161

From the Art Institute of Chicago record

In the late 18th century, the French Academy promoted a severely Classical approach to history painting as a means to regenerate art—and in contrast to the perceived decadence of the Rococo style. Jacques-Louis David and his students were leading exponents of this Neoclassical approach, treating antique subjects as moral exemplars for contemporary audiences. Here, David’s student Jean-Baptiste Wicar depicted the response of the Roman emperor Augustus and his family to Virgil’s reading of his epic poem the Aeneid, which tells the story of Aeneas, the Trojan prince who settled in Latium after many adventures and was viewed as an ancestor of Augustus. The emotionally charged gestures of Augustus and his sister Octavia suggest that they identify their own family drama with the heroic events recounted by Virgil.

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Provenance & credit

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Credit line: Wirt D. Walker Fund
Provenance: Possibly in the possession of the artist until his death in 1834 [an early painting depicting Virgil is described in inventory of property drawn up after Wicar’s death, as “il Quadro rappresentante Virgilio dipinto dal defonto nei primi anni della sua Gioventù”, see Wise and Warner 1996, pp. 175-8]; possibly bequeathed to Wicar’s student, Giuseppe Carattoli (died 1850), Perugia [see Wise and Warner 1996 and Caracciolo and Rosenberg 2002, p. 245]. Possibly Mario Praz [Carlo Sestieri stated in a letter of March 21, 1981, to Susan Wise that he thought he had acquired the painting in an exchange with Mario Praz, Rome, but in another letter dated September 20, 1983 he said that he had purchased the painting in Florence, both in curatorial file; it is not mentioned in Mario Praz, The House of Life (Oxford, 1964)]. Marcello and Carlo Sestieri, Rome, by 1963; sold to the Art Institute, 1963.

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Object type: AAT300033618

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