Achilles about to kill Hector, Pallas Athena between them
19th century
Medium
White marble
Dimensions
Pedestal, 33-1/4 x 33 in. (84.5 x 83.8 cm); L. 46 in. (116.8 cm.)
Classification
Sculpture
Culture
Italian, Rome
Department
European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Mrs. Lawrence Kip, 1899
Accession Number
99.9d
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the grand tradition of neoclassical sculpture, Giovanni Maria Benzoni's *Achilles about to Kill Hector Pallas Athena between Them (19th century) captures a moment from Homer's *Iliad*. Carved from luminous white marble, this dramatic tableau depicts the Trojan hero Hector facing his doom at the hands of the Greek warrior Achilles, with the goddess Pallas Athena intervening between them. Benzoni, a prolific Italian sculptor based in Rome, drew inspiration from ancient mythology to evoke the epic struggles of the Trojan War, blending tension and divine intervention in a frozen instant of high...