The Babylonian Captivity (painting)
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The Babylonian Captivity is an 1838–1847 painting by Eugène Delacroix for the ceiling of the Assemblée nationale's library in the Palais Bourbon in Paris.
It interprets Psalm 137: 1-2 but is an allegorical Romantic interpretation rather than a religious one - Delacroix (an admirer of the Theist Voltaire) uses it as a motif of longing and nostalgia with figures lost in thought and sees its setting in Babylon on the Euphrates through an Orientalising lens.[1]
History
[edit]Between 1838 and 1847 Delacroix was commissioned to create oil paintings for the ceiling of the Chamber of Deputies in the Palais Bourbon, including the five domes of the 42-metre-long main hall and two half domes above the apses, each closing off the 10-metre-wide apses.[2] He created an allegorical cycle on the theme of European civilization, inspired by the location and the room's function. Each of the five domes showed a scene based on the seven ancient liberal arts (Poetry, Theology, Law and Oratory, History and Philosophy, and Science), each surrounded by related pendentives.[3] Captivity, Adam and Eve, The coin in the fish's mouth and The Beheading of John the Baptist are the four pendentives to Theology. Each has a medallion on it with the scene's title.[4]
Bibliography
[edit]- (in French) Yves Sjöberg: La décoration monumentale. Palais Bourbon. In: ders.: Pour comprendre Delacroix. Beauchesne 1963; S. 134–151 Online (unvollständig)
References
[edit]- ^ (in French) Yves Söberg: Pour comprendre Delacroix (1963), p. 149
- ^ (in French) Yves Söberg: Pour comprendre Delacroix (1963), page 140
- ^ (in French) Assemblée nationale: Plafond de la bibliothèque. Peintures de Delacroix
- ^ (in French) Assemblée nationale: Plafond de la bibliothèque. Peintures de Delacroix: La captivité à Babylone