The Sacrifice of Polyxena (Primary Title)
Pio Fedi, Italian, 1816 - 1892 (Artist)
Polyxena was the daughter of King Priam of Troy and his wife, Hecuba. She was desired by the Greek hero Achilles who asked her to marry him. Eventually, however, Achilles’s son Pyrrhus (also known as Neoptolemos) sacrificed her on his father’s tomb. This scene by Fedi was taken from the Euripides tragedy Hecuba as well as Ovid’s Metamorphoses. It depicts Pyrrhus tearing Polyxena away from her mother, who is already grieving over the death of her son Polites, shown lying at Pyrrhus’s feet. This sculpture is both an epitome of tragedy as well as a virtuoso composition and carving.
One of two known preparatory designs for the final marble, this plaster is the product of many years of development. A smaller sketch with differences is in the Minneapolis Institute of Art and a bronze after the marble is at the Clark Art Institute, in Williamstown, Massachusetts.
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