drawing
- Museum number
- 1886,0410.27
- Description
-
Study for the figure of Antiochus in the painting 'Antiochus and Stratonice' (Musée Condé, Chantilly); head, shoulders and raised arm of young man, with two separate hand studies
Graphite
- Production date
- 1834-1840 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 163 millimetres
-
Width: 179 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- There are several versions of Ingres' painting of 'Antiochus and Stratonice', the earliest of which is the one at Chantilly dated 1840 commissioned by the Duc d'Orléans in 1834, see D. Wildenstein, 'The Paintings of J.A.D. Ingres', London, 1954, no. 232, pl. 82. The painting was one of three works executed while he was Director of the French Academy in Rome (1835-1841). The pose of Antiochus, the son of Seleucus, King of Syria, in the final work, twisting away in order not to look at his beautiful stepmother, Stratonice, standing at the foot of his bed (his secret passion for her the cause of his illness), is substantially the same as in the drawing although the left hand (studied twice) is closed. The two hands studied in the top left of the sheet correspond to those of the doctor, Erasistratus, checking Antiochus' pulse. This is key to the narrative as the latter's illness was revealed by Erasistratus' realisation that his patient's pulse increased when Stratonice was present. The agonised expression and turn of Antiochus' body, a movement more pronounced in the Chantilly work, are no less important in conveying the conflicting emotions of the protagonist fighting to stop himself looking at his father's wife. In Plutarch's version in his 'Lives', the story is resolved happily with Seleucus relinquishing Stratonice and allowing her to marry his son.
There are further drawings for the figure at Montauban, G. Vigne, 'Dessins d'Ingres, catalogue raisonné des dessins du musée de Montauban', Paris, 1995, nos. 73-80, of which no. 74 is the closest to the present in concentrating on the head of the prince. For further discussion of drawings and later versions of the composition based around an oil on paper sketch for the Chantilly canvas in Cleveland, see H.S. Francis, 'Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres: Antiochus and Stratonice', "The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art" , 55, 4 (Apr., 1968), pp. 103-112.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1886
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1886,0410.27