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Lot Essay
Cades drew another version, similar in size, now in the Muse Fabre, Montpellier, M.T. Caracciolo, op. cit., no. 20a, illustrated. In the present drawing, the expressions of the figures are more internalized and the postures less violent than in the Montpellier sheet. Maria Teresa Caracciolo compares the drawing to Achilles and Patroclus called by Achilles and Nestor datable to 1775-8.
At the time the drawing was executed, Cades was working in Rome under the influence of Sergel and Fuseli and French artists such as Gibelin, Berthlemy and Moitte. Their influence is relfected in the frieze-like composition also found in a drawing by Cades, sold at Christie's Monaco, 20 June 1994, lot 7, and now at the Getty Museum. Caracciolo also compares the present drawing to a Winged Victory, op. cit., no. 45 illustrated.
All these artists illustrated subjects taken from Homer, probably influenced by the new translation of the Illiad by Melchiorre Cesarotti, who had previously translated Ossian.
The drawing represents Achilles surrendering his slave Briseis to Agamemnon's emissaries. Agamemnon asked Achilles for the daughter of a priest as a prize of war, but on Calchas's advise Agamemnon gave her up for Achilles' slave. In the drawing, Achilles has already accepted the loss and tries to comfort Briseis, who looks at him sadly. The Montpellier sheet shows Agamemnon's emissaries grabbing the weeping Briseis, while Achilles looks back helplessly at his followers.
At the time the drawing was executed, Cades was working in Rome under the influence of Sergel and Fuseli and French artists such as Gibelin, Berthlemy and Moitte. Their influence is relfected in the frieze-like composition also found in a drawing by Cades, sold at Christie's Monaco, 20 June 1994, lot 7, and now at the Getty Museum. Caracciolo also compares the present drawing to a Winged Victory, op. cit., no. 45 illustrated.
All these artists illustrated subjects taken from Homer, probably influenced by the new translation of the Illiad by Melchiorre Cesarotti, who had previously translated Ossian.
The drawing represents Achilles surrendering his slave Briseis to Agamemnon's emissaries. Agamemnon asked Achilles for the daughter of a priest as a prize of war, but on Calchas's advise Agamemnon gave her up for Achilles' slave. In the drawing, Achilles has already accepted the loss and tries to comfort Briseis, who looks at him sadly. The Montpellier sheet shows Agamemnon's emissaries grabbing the weeping Briseis, while Achilles looks back helplessly at his followers.