Currently not on view
Theseus and Achelous (Ovid, Metamorphoses IX, 1-97),
ca. 1792–95
Jean-Guillaume Moitte, French, 1746–1810
x1976-296
Moitte’s work exemplified the neoclassical taste predominant in academic art and design between the years 1750 and 1830. Informed by recent archeological discoveries, Moitte and his peers sought to emulate Greek and Roman art with scientific exactitude. Moitte was especially admired for his low-relief sculpture and his abilities as a draftsman. This finished drawing, in the manner of a classical frieze, represents a scene from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, in which the river god Achelous and Theseus, the legendary king of Athens, discuss the power of the gods to change shape. On the right, Ceres, the goddess of fertility, approaches, carrying a cornucopia laden with the fruits of autumn’s harvest to symbolize transformation.
Information
Title
Theseus and Achelous (Ovid, Metamorphoses IX, 1-97)
Dates
ca. 1792–95
Maker
Medium
Pen and black ink, white and gray gouache, with black wash
Dimensions
26.8 x 64.5 cm (10 9/16 x 25 3/8 in.)
frame: 49 × 87 × 3.5 cm (19 5/16 × 34 1/4 × 1 3/8 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, Laura P. Hall Memorial Fund
Object Number
x1976-296
Culture
Type
Materials
Helene Munsterberger, London;
Purchased by the Princeton Univeristy Art Museum
- "Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1976," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 36, no. 1 (1977): p. 28-40., p. 36
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"Front matter", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 42, no. 1 (1983): cover.
, Cover illus. - "Sixteenth-to eighteenth-century French drawings from the permanent collection: a checklist of the exhibition," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 42, no. 1 (1983): p. 43-49., p. 45
- Gisela Gramaccini, Jean-Guillaume Moitte (1746-1810): Leben und Werk, (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1993). , cat. no. 208 (xerox on file); Vol. 1: p. 125; Vol. 2: p. 288, fig. 298; p. 88
- Richard J. Campbell and Victor Carlson, Visions of antiquity: neoclassical figure drawings, (Los Angeles, CA: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Minneapolis, MN; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1993)., p. 41, 42; fig. 19
