1746
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Study for "Antiochus and Stratonice" is a 1746 unspecified by Pompeo Batoni, a Baroque work, depicting Aeneas, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
This painting shows Antiochus sick in bed. His worried father stands beside him. A doctor leans in, checking the young man’s pulse. The story comes from ancient Rome. The doctor realizes Antiochus’s love for his new stepmother is making him ill. The father agrees to give her up so his son can live. Check out another painting by Batoni at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Struck by a mysterious illness, Antiochus lies in bed near death. His grieving father, who has recently taken Stratonice as his wife, summons a doctor. Noticing that the sight of the young woman quickens Antiochus’s pulse and that passion causes his sickness, the doctor describes the youth’s predicament to his father, who selflessly offers Stratonice to his son. The subject, both a love story and an example of parental devotion, enjoyed considerable popularity well into the 1800s.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (25 January 1708 – 4 February 1787) was an Italian painter who displayed a solid technical knowledge in his portrait work and in his numerous allegorical and mythological pictures.
See the richer artist page
