Aeneas Fleeing with Anchises from the Ruins of Troy
1777
Medium
Red chalk, over graphite, on off-white laid paper, laid down on cream laid card
Dimensions
32.1 × 43.4 cm (12 11/16 × 17 1/8 in.)
Classification
drawings (visual works)
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
53169
Art Historical Context
Augustin Pajou’s drawing captures a pivotal moment from Virgil’s *Aeneid*, showing the Trojan hero Aeneas carrying his aged father Anchises from their burning city. Created in 1777, the work reflects the-eighteenth-century fascination with classical antiquity that defined the emerging Neoclassical movement. Pajou, best known as a sculptor to the French court, used this mythological subject to explore themes of filial duty and heroic resolve that resonated deeply in Enlightenment-era France. Executed in red chalk over faint graphite lines on laid paper, the drawing reveals Pajou’s mastery of s...
About the Artist
Augustin Pajou · 1730–1809
Augustin Pajou (1730–1809) was one of the foremost French sculptors of the second half of the eighteenth century, whose long and distinguished career bridged the Rococo grace of the Ancien Régime and the more sober classicizing spirit that emerged in the revolutionary and Napoleonic periods. Born in Paris into a family with artistic connections — his father was an ornamental sculptor — Pajou showe...