Parcere Subiectis (The Magnanimous Treatment of Prisoners)
c. 1670
Medium
etching on laid paper
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of James A. Bergquist, Boston, in honor of Shelley R.Langdale
Accession Number
2020.149.21
Art Historical Context
Gerard de Lairesse *Parcere SubiectisThe Magnanimous Treatment Prisoners)*, created around 1670, captures a noble classical theme drawn from Virgil's *Aeneid*. The Latin title evokes the virtue of mercy toward the vanquished, likely portraying a triumphant leader extending clemency to defeated foes popular motif in 17th-century history painting that celebrated moral grandeur and heroic restraint. As a Dutch artist active in Amsterdam during the waning Dutch Golden Age, Laires blended Baroque dynamism with emerging Classicism, influenced by French academism and Rubens, to produce elegant, theat...
About the Artist
Gerard de Lairesse · 1641–1711
Gerard de Lairesse (1641–1711) was a leading figure of the Dutch Golden Age, renowned as both a painter and art theorist whose classical ideals bridged the dramatic realism of Rembrandt with the refined elegance of French academism. Born on September 11, 1641, in Liège, he was the second son of the painter Renier de Lairesse (1597–1667). De Lairesse received his initial training under his father b...