Landscape with Ascanius shooting the Stag of Sylvia

Image credit: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

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Painted for Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna in 1681–1682 as a pendant to the 'Dido and Aeneas before Carthage' of 1675–1676 (now in the Kunsthalle, Hamburg), this painting is Claude's last picture. The subject is from Virgil's 'Aeneid' VII, 483–499: Ascanius, hunting in Latium with his companions, becomes the instrument of the Fury Allecto who is sent by Juno to provoke war. Allecto, here evoked by the wind bending the trees in an impending storm, directs Ascanius's uncertain aim to wound mortally the tame stag of Silvia, the daughter of Tyrrheus, ranger to the King of the Latins; war ensues. The earlier pendant takes as its starting point Virgil's description of Dido and Aeneas leaving for the hunt (IV, 136–142) but the composition encapsulates other moments in the narrative, including Dido showing Carthage to Aeneas and Dido accusing Aeneas of betrayal.

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Oxford

Title

Landscape with Ascanius shooting the Stag of Sylvia

Date

1681–1682

Medium

oil on canvas

Measurements

H 120 x W 150 cm

Accession number

WA1926.1

Acquisition method

gift from Florence Weldon (née Tebb), 1926

Work type

Painting

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Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

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