- Museum number
- 1957,1214.188
- Description
-
View of Delphi with a procession, the landscape based on 'Historiae Philippicae' (XXXIV, 6) by Marcus Justinus, record of painting in the Art Institute, Chicago, from the Liber Veritatis; in foreground procession, beyond at left bridge and fortified town, in background Mount Parnassus, surmounted by the temple of Apollo and half way up a fissure for consulting the oracle
Pen and brown ink and brown wash, with grey and grey-brown wash, heightened with white, on blue paper
- Production date
- 1673
- Dimensions
-
Height: 193 millimetres
-
Width: 255 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- See 1957,1214.6 for information on the Liber Veritatis.
Though Claude generally depicted specific stories in his classical paintings, there are a few exceptions in which there is no obvious literary episode. This may be considered to be one such, although the site derives from the description of Delphi in Marcus Justinius’ 'Historiae Philippicae' (xxiv, 6) as confirmed by an inscription on the preparatory drawing at Windsor (see Roethlisberger 1968, no. 1057). The scene is dramatic in its contrasts between rocky Mount Parnassus and temple at its peak, which may allude to Temple of Jupiter Feretrius (see Kennedy 1972). The painting was commissioned by Cardinal Massimi and is now at the Art Institute in Chicago, inv, no. 41.1020; canvas, 101.7 x 127 cm; Roethlisberger 1986, no. 258). It was a pendant to LV184 (see 1957,1214.190).
Lit: M. Roethlisberger, 'Claude Lorrain, The Paintings', London 1961, LV182, pp. 428–431; M. Roethlisberger, ‘Claude Lorrain. The Drawings’, Berkeley & Los Angeles, 1968, no. 1058; I. Kennedy, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, xxxv, 1972, p. 265; M. Kitson, ‘Claude Lorrain: Liber Veritatis’, London 1978, no. 182; M. Roethlisberger, ‘'Tout l'oeuvre peint de Claude Lorrain’, Paris, 1986, no. 258
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1977 BM, Claude Lorrain: Liber Veritatis
- Associated titles
Associated Title: Historiae Philippicae
- Acquisition date
- 1957
- Acquisition notes
- Accepted by H M Government in lieu of tax on the estate of the 9th Duke of Devonshire.
See M. Kitson's 'Claude Lorrain: Liber Veritatis', pp. 28-9, for a full account of the provenance of the sketch-book.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1957,1214.188