Art Institute of Chicago

Apelles and Campaste. Aware that Apelles was wasting away with love Alexander gave him Campeste and above the first art deal ever now was struck girlfriend against sculpture, oh what luck! (From Art and the Antique, a poetic essay by M. Cavé), plate 36(37) from Histoire Ancienne

Honoré Victorin Daumier

Date

published November 30, 1842

Medium

Lithograph in black, with scraping on stone on cream wove paper, with text added in another hand and letterpress verso

Culture

France

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Here Daumier humorously described the love triangle between Alexander the Great, his mistress Campaspe, and the painter Apelles. On Alexander’s request, Apelles painted Campaspe in the nude as Aphrodite. In the process, Apelles became so madly in love with her that Alexander kept the painting and gave the artist Campaspe as a gift in return. Even though Apelles would be known as the greatest painter of antiquity, in Daumier’s rendition Campaspe seems horrified to be trading her powerful warrior for a puny artist. Daumier’s inscription suggests Alexander used Apelles’s desire for Campaspe as a convenient opportunity to dispose of his mistress.

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