Cleveland Museum of Art

The Sacrifice of Polyxena

Gerard de LairesseLinkedCulture matchlcp-52b63bfbfcaa

Date: 1667
Medium: etching
Culture: Netherlands
Department: Prints
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art
Object ID: 446714

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

After the fall of Troy, the Trojan women were divided among the Greeks. Achilles arose from his grave and demanded that Polyxena, the daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba, be slain on his tomb in order to join him in the afterlife. Behind a blindfolded Polyxena who awaits her fate on a sacrificial altar in this image, Achilles appears in warrior’s garb on a rearing horse. Gerard De Lairesse’s figures are firmly modeled, and the space clearly defined with classical architecture, and reflect his interest in French art of the same period. Gerard de Lairesse was called the “Dutch Poussin” for his role in bringing a French artistic style to the Netherlands in the late 1600s.

View at Cleveland Museum of Art ↗

The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.

Get printable QR codes

Open QR codes for this object page and the museum record. They stay collapsed until needed.

Open this page

See at Cleveland Museum of Art

Provenance & credit

As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.

Credit line: L. E. Holden Fund
Provenance: ?-2021: James Bergquist, Boston, MA, sold to The Cleveland Museum of Art | December 6, 2021-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH