Mourners at the tomb of Achilles

An influential figure in Roman academic painting, Vincenzo Cammucini gained international recognition in the first decades of the 19th century for his Neoclassical history paintings. He was also a highly successful art dealer and, together with his brother Pietro, he amassed an outstanding collection of 16th and 17th-century Italian paintings that was famously acquired by the 4th Duke of Northumberland in 1856.
Mourners at the tomb of Achilles is one of a cycle of six paintings that hung in the residences of the Grazioli family, probably either the Palazzo Grazioli in Rome or the Villa Montalto at Frascati. In 1981, another work from the group, Hector setting fire to the ships of the Greeks, was exhibited at the Heim Gallery, London.