The Sacrifice of Polyxena (1667): Art, History and Details

The Sacrifice of Polyxena (1667) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Gerard de Lairesse (Flemish, 1641–1711).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

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.

Object facts

• Title: The Sacrifice of Polyxena
• Date: 1667
• Creator attribution: Gerard de Lairesse (Flemish, 1641–1711)
• Culture: Netherlands
• Type: Print
• Technique: etching
• Dimensions: Platemark: 30.5 x 38.7 cm (12 x 15 1/4 in.); Sheet: 33.1 x 41.4 cm (13 1/16 x 16 5/16 in.)
• Collection: PR - Etching
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 2021.169

A detail from the museum

Gerard de Lairesse was called the “Dutch Poussin” for his role in bringing a French artistic style to the Netherlands in the late 1600s.

Collection credit

L. E. Holden Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Timmers, J. J. M. Gérard Lairesse. Amsterdam: H.J. Paris, 1942.
• Ackley, Clifford S. Printmaking in the Age of Rembrandt. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1981.
• Roy, Alain. Gérard de Lairesse, 1640-1711. Paris: Arthena, 1992.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.