Virgil's Tomb by Moonlight, with Silius Italicus Declaiming
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
40 x 50 in. (101.6 x 127 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Department
European Paintings
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, Gifts of Mrs. William M. Haupt, Josephine Bay Paul, and Estate of George Quackenbush, in his memory, by exchange, The Morris and Alma Schapiro Fund Gift, and funds from various donors, 2013
Accession Number
2013.155
Tags
Art Historical Context
Joseph Wright of Derby's *Virgil's Tomb bylight, with Siliusicus Declaiming* (9) captures a poignant nocturnal scene at the ancient tomb of the Roman poet Virgil Naples, Italy. In this oil on canvas (40 x 50 in.), Wright depicts the Roman poet Silius Italicus, devoted admirer of Virgil, passionately reciting verse amid the moonlit ruins. Painted during the height of the Grand Tour era, when British aristocrats traveled to Italy for classical inspiration, the work reflects 18th-century Romantic fascination with antiquity, ruins, and the sublime power of moonlight. Wright, a pioneering English ...
About the Artist
Joseph Wright (Wright of Derby) · 1734–1797
Joseph Wright of Derby (1734–1797) was an English painter celebrated for his dramatic use of candlelight and artificial illumination, which earned him a unique position in eighteenth-century British art as the painter of the Industrial Revolution and the Enlightenment. Born in Derby in the English Midlands, he studied in London under Thomas Hudson, a leading portrait painter, before returning to D...