Giovanni Battista Pittoni: The Sacrifice of Polyxena (1733-1734)

(J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, USA)

A painting by the Italian artist Giovanni Battista Pittoni (1687-1767). Subject of this painting is a scene from Greek mythology. During the Trojan War, the Trojan princess Polyxena, daughter of the king of Troy, and het brother Troilus were ambushed by the Greek. Troilus was killed and Polyxena was taken prisoner. The Greek hero Achilles fell in love with Polyxena and he was offered her hand if he agreed to end the war between the Greeks and the Trojans. At Polyxena's request, Achilles came to make a sacrifice to the god Apollo, but he was ambushed by Paris, Polyxena's brother, as he knelt at the altar. Paris shot a fatal arrow into Achilles' heel, his one vulnerable spot. Before he died, Achilles vengefully proclaimed that the treacherous Polyxena be sacrificed at his tomb. When the Trojan war was over, Achilles' ghost returned to the Greeks to demand the human sacrifice of Polyxena so as to appease the wind the Greeks needed to set sail back. The artist shows the ghost of Achilles who demands Polyxena (she is wearing a white wedding gown) be killed. Around Polyxena and large group of Greek and Trojans are watching with mixed emotions. This painting was commissioned by Count Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg and is from 1733-1734.