Lot Essay
The story of Briseis, taken from Homer's Iliad, 1:345ff., was popular with history painters working in Rome at the end of the 18th Century. Gavin Hamilton painted a well known picture of the episode which was engraved by Domenico Cunego, a composition which clearly influenced Pécheux .
Pécheux is known to have painted two versions of the same story. One is recorded in his studio on his death, and the artist himself noted in 1776 'Un tableau, un peu plus grand que toile d'empereur, représentant Achille affligé de le voir obligé de céder Briseis à Agamemnon. Ce tableau est à moi: il étoit commencé a Rome et fut fini à Turin', L. Bollea (ed.) , Note des Tableaux, Turin, 1942, p. 398, no. 78. A few years later in 1800, Pécheux recorded a second picture: '1800 fini: le grand tableau d'Achille affligé de devoir laisser amener Briseis par Euribate et Taltibius pour Agamemnon. Il devait servir de modèle pour être exécuté en tapisserie', L. Bollea, op. cit., p. 401, no. 126.
Both pictures, it seems, were offered for sale to the French governor in Turin in 1803, L. Bollea, Schede vesme, L'Arte in Piemonte del XVI al XVIII secolo, Turin 1968, III, pp. 792-3.
The present drawing relates to the picture now in the Castello at Agliè, Cultura figurativa e architettonica negli Stati del Re di Sardegna 1773-1861, exhib. cat., Turin, Palazzo Reale, pp. 13-14, no. 8, illustrated. The picture was mentioned together with Pécheux's Virginia before Claudius Appius by Felico Durando di Villa writing in 1778 about the opening of the Turin Academy, F. Durando di Villa, Ragionamento, in Regolamenti, Turin, 1778, p. 7. Pécheux became director of the Academy and first painter to the King of Sardinia in 1777. Durando di Villa's reference dates the drawing to this important period in Pécheux's career when he would have been keen to impress his new master with his erudition and skill. The image obviously proved successful as it later served as a model for a tapestry produced in 1828 under the direction of A. Bruno, and exhibited at the Palazzo Madama in Turin in 1829, L. Mallé, Mobili, Turin, 1972, p. 539
Pécheux is known to have painted two versions of the same story. One is recorded in his studio on his death, and the artist himself noted in 1776 'Un tableau, un peu plus grand que toile d'empereur, représentant Achille affligé de le voir obligé de céder Briseis à Agamemnon. Ce tableau est à moi: il étoit commencé a Rome et fut fini à Turin', L. Bollea (ed.) , Note des Tableaux, Turin, 1942, p. 398, no. 78. A few years later in 1800, Pécheux recorded a second picture: '1800 fini: le grand tableau d'Achille affligé de devoir laisser amener Briseis par Euribate et Taltibius pour Agamemnon. Il devait servir de modèle pour être exécuté en tapisserie', L. Bollea, op. cit., p. 401, no. 126.
Both pictures, it seems, were offered for sale to the French governor in Turin in 1803, L. Bollea, Schede vesme, L'Arte in Piemonte del XVI al XVIII secolo, Turin 1968, III, pp. 792-3.
The present drawing relates to the picture now in the Castello at Agliè, Cultura figurativa e architettonica negli Stati del Re di Sardegna 1773-1861, exhib. cat., Turin, Palazzo Reale, pp. 13-14, no. 8, illustrated. The picture was mentioned together with Pécheux's Virginia before Claudius Appius by Felico Durando di Villa writing in 1778 about the opening of the Turin Academy, F. Durando di Villa, Ragionamento, in Regolamenti, Turin, 1778, p. 7. Pécheux became director of the Academy and first painter to the King of Sardinia in 1777. Durando di Villa's reference dates the drawing to this important period in Pécheux's career when he would have been keen to impress his new master with his erudition and skill. The image obviously proved successful as it later served as a model for a tapestry produced in 1828 under the direction of A. Bruno, and exhibited at the Palazzo Madama in Turin in 1829, L. Mallé, Mobili, Turin, 1972, p. 539