Existing comment:
John Trumbull, American, 1756 - 1843 (Artist)
Priam Returning to his Family the Dead Body of Hector (Primary Title), 1785
John Trumbull was the preeminent history painter working in early America. Like his teacher Benjamin West (whose painting hangs nearby), he imported from England a neoclassical style well suited to his country's democratic goals of governance. The subject of this work comes from the final book of Homer's The Iliad. Priam, king of Troy during the Trojan War with Greece, has recovered his son Hector's corpse from his slayer, Achilles. Three famed women of Troy – Hector's wife, Andromache; Priam's wife, Queen Hecuba; and Priam's daughter-in-law, Helen – step forward to receive the hero's body, whose beauty the gods have maintained in death. The mourners' controlled emotions exemplify the virtue of personal sacrifice in the cause of civic duty. |