PAUL-FRANÇOIS QUINSAC

Please note that this work will be sold unframed.

Sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, Collection of Paul Gravier, May 3, 1923, lot 139
Acquired circa 1920s (possibly at the above sale)
(thence by descent)

In this highly evocative composition, Quinsac chooses to paint the denouement of one of the most complicated and lurid mythological tales. The beautiful, accomplished daughter of Priam and Hecuba, Polyxena was an object of fervent desire for the hero Achilles. Her brother, Hector, opposed their marriage and was killed when he challenged Achilles. In retaliation, Polyxena betrayed her lover, revealing the secret of his vulnerable heel to Paris. Upon Achilles' death, her grief and guilt was so great that she sacrificed herself at the foot of his tomb, depicted by Quinsac as a formidable structure of gray stone carved with a scene of a heroic battle. Some say the sacrifice was not voluntary: instead, Achilles' ghost legendarily appeared before his son Neoptolemus, demanding he stab Polyxena to death. Perhaps it is this young boy who sits at the maiden's side, the knife thrown to the grass next to him. Despite the variations in the tale and this picture's composition, the artist is true to Seneca's description of Polyxena as a strong, valiant woman who does not shy away from her doom; particularly beautiful in her death, her “blood having been shed did not stand or flow on the surface of the earth; the savage mound… swallowed and drank all of the blood.” In its mixture of ancient narrative, passion, and sensuality, Quinsac created the ideal large-scale canvas to enthrall viewers eager for these incredible illustrations.