Orpheus bringing civilization to the barbarian ancestors of the Greeks

Delacroix, Eugène (1798-1863)

Item type:

drawing

Date of creation:

ca. 1842-1844

Height:

47.0 cm  (18 1/2 in.)

Width:

67.4 cm  (26 9/16 in.)

framed: 69.85 × 81.28 × 3.81 cm (27 1/2 × 32 × 1 1/2 in.)

Technique / Medium:

brush and watercolor and white body color over graphite

Description

With mountains in the background, and images of primitive men in the foreground, Orpheus, two heavenly beings, and one cherub deliver symbols of civilization: farming/long life (represented by sheaves of grain from the floating goddesses), music or poetry (represented by the unfurled scroll held by Orpheus) and peace (olive branch in the hand of the cherub). This was a preparatory drawing for Delacroix's hemicycle cupola painting in the library of the Palais Bourbon, Paris.

Iconclass

47I13
civilization ~ agriculture
94O7
(story of) Orpheus - specific aspects, allegorical aspects, as patron of

RIdIM images

Image URLs

image link 1

Bibliographic references

Hopmans, Anita. "Delacroix's decorations in the Palais Bourbon library: A classic example of an unacademic approach", Simiolus: Netherlands quarterly for the history of art 17/4 (1987) 240-269. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3780620

RIdIM record id

6165