The Sacrifice of Iphigenia

Artist Pietro Testa, called Il Lucchesino (Italian, 1611 - 1650)

Dateca. 1640-1642

MediumEtching

DimensionsPlate: 13 1/16 × 18 1/16 inches (33.18 × 45.88 cm)

Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. Robert L. Bloch

Object number81-25/4

On View

Not on view

Collections

Prints

Terms

Exhibition History

The Human Body, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, November 29, 2010-June 6, 2011, no cat., as The Sacrifice of Iphigenia.

The Human Body, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, July 18, 2018-January 13, 2019, no cat., as The Sacrifice of Iphigenia.

Gallery Label

Iphigenia was the daughter of the ancient Greek hero Agamemnon. Agamemnon besieged the city of Troy in Asia Minor, in order to recover Helen, the wife of his brother Menalaus who had been abducted by Paris, the son of Troy's King Priam. On his way there Agamemnon's fleet was becalmed, so to obtain a fair wind he decided to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia to the goddess Diana. Diana at the last minute substituted a hind as the sacrificial victim and Iphigenia was spared. In the print, Iphigenia is seen in front at the base of the altar behind which Agamemnon stands, while Diana and the hind appear to the left.

Provenance

Robert L. (b. 1952) and Barbara E. (née Klugman, b. 1958) Bloch, Shawnee Mission, KS, by July 7, 1981;

Given by Robert L. and Barbara E. Bloch to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1981.

Published References

Adam Bartsch, Le peintre-graveur, vol. 19, Peintres ou dessinateurs italiens: Maitres du dix-septième siècle, première partie (Vienna: Chez Pierre Mechetti, ci-devant Charles, 1819), no. 23, p. 221, as Le sacrifice d’Iphigénie.

Paolo Bellini, L’opera incisa di Pietro Testa (Venice: Neri Pozza, 1976), no. 18 III/III.

George L. McKenna, Prints, 1460-1995 (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1996), 307, as The Sacrifice of Iphigenia.

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