- Museum number
- 1957,1214.86
- Description
-
Seaport with Ulysses returning Chryseis to her father, based on Homer's 'Iliad' (I), record of the painting in the Louvre, Paris (Inv 4718) from the Liber Veritatis; in foreground figures on shore, some unloading boats, beyond at left building with porticos, and figures, and at centre a ship
Pen and brown ink and brown wash, heightened with white, on blue paper
- Production date
- 1644 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 198 millimetres
-
Width: 262 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- See 1957,1214.6 for information on the 'Liber Veritatis'.
This was made to record a painting of 1644 now in the Louvre, Paris (inv. no. 316; Roethlisberger 1961, fig. 156). The inscription on the verso is unclear, as the first dedication was erased and replaced with ‘le prince de Leancourt’ who can be identified as Roger du Plessis, Seigneur de Liancourt. Kitson suggested that the commission for Leancourt was arranged through the French Ambassador, Fontenay, who also commissioned LV93 and 94.
The episode that the scene depicts derives from the first book of Homer’s 'Iliad', and shows the episode in which Chryseis was returned from the Greek’s camp to her Trojan father. A Homeric subject, Oennone lamenting Paris’s betrayal of her undying love, is also derived from Homer (for which see 1957,1214.123). As typical of Claude, this episode plays only a minor part within the complex scene which is framed by grandiose architecture inspired by Roman antiquity and carefully rendered ships. Certain elements are derived from earlier Seaports, such figures that feature in LV 23 and LV 54 and the buildsings from LV 61 and 63. Despite this ‘recycling’ the design is entirely novel in its conception and in the exceptional handling of light that fills the horizon.
There are faint squaring lines visible across the composition that were done with a pointed instrument. This squaring served to assist Dominique Barriere in the translation of the design into an etching in 1664 (for an impression see 1982,U.1656). The retouching of the drawing may have taken place at the same place as the scoring of the design for transfer. The inscription in the sky above is a Papal permission required for the publication of all prints in Rome and would have been added around 1664. The same persmission also occurs on LV 94 (1957,1214.102) which was also turned into an etching by Barriere in 1660. Barriere also made etchings after LV 54, 70 and 73.
Lit: M. Roethlisberger, 'Claude Lorrain, The Paintings', London 1961, LV80, pp. 227–30; M. Roethlisberger, ‘Claude Lorrain. The Drawings’, Berkeley & Los Angeles, 1968, no. 554; M. Kitson, ‘Claude Lorrain: Liber Veritatis’, London 1978, no. 80.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1977 BM, Claude Lorrain: Liber Veritatis
1978/9 Oct-Jan, Paris, Musée du Louvre, 'Claude Lorrain', no. 54
1990 April-Aug, BM, Treasures of P&D
1999 Jun-Sep, Rouen, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen,'Antour de Claude-Joseph Vernet'
- Associated titles
Associated Title: Iliad
- 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
- 1957,1214.86