Medea
Corrado Giaquinto (Molfetta 1703 - Naples 1765)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1750 - 1752
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1670 x 1213 mm (65 3/4 x 47 3/4 in)
Place of origin
Naples
Order this imageCollection
Hinton Ampner, Hampshire
NT 1530091
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Medea by Corrado Giaquinto (Molfetta 1703 - Naples 1765), circa 1750/52. Medea seated in a stormy landscape, holding a wand in her right hand, her two dead children at her feet to the right with a dog-headed serpent behind them. Temple in right background. The sorceress-princess of Colchis is shown with the corpses of Jason's two children whom she murdered in revenge for Jason's divorcing her to marry Glauce. Giaquinto was of south Italian origin, but spent most of his career in Rome and Spain, from 1753 - 62. A half-length version of this picture is in the Pinacoteca, Montefortino. Two exquisite sketches by the artist have been acquired by the National Gallery.
Provenance
Purchased by Ralph Stawell Dutton (1898-1985), 8th and last Lord Sherborne, from Colnaghi in 1961 (acknowledged in a receipt dated 17 July 1961; £2, 635 including framing); bequeathed to the National Trust by Ralph Stawell Dutton, with the rest of the collections, house, gardens and estate of Hinton Ampner.
Credit line
Hinton Ampner, The Ralph Dutton Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
Corrado Giaquinto (Molfetta 1703 - Naples 1765), artist
References
Mario d'Orsi, Corrado Giaquinto, Rome, 1958 Art in Rome in the Eighteenth Century, exh cat. (eds. E. P. Bowron and J. J. Rishel), Philadelphia Museum of Art, March 16-May 28, 2000 and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, June 25-September 17, 2000, pp. 372 - 77