Museums →
Nationalmuseum
Artist: Simon Vouet (1590–1649)
French painter and draughtsman
Work location: Paris, London (ca. 1605), Istanbul (November 1612), Venice (1612-1613), Rome (1613-1620), Genoa (1620-1621), Rome (1622-1627), Venice (1627), Paris (1628)
Title: Artemisia Building the Mausolaeum
Object type: Painting
Description: The painting tells the story of how Queen Artemisia of Caria in Asia Minor supposedly ordered the building of the Mausolaeum at Halicarnassus in memory of her husband, Mausolus (352 B.C.). The Queen is said to have mixed Mausolus’ ashes with liquid, which she drank. She thus comes to symbolise a widow’s devotion. Vouet depicts the strongly idealised figures in a classical architectural setting, using Venetian colour and light. Form and content harmonise.
Date: early 1640s
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: Height: 161 cm (63.4 in). Width: 139 cm (54.7 in).
Framed: Height: 150 cm (59.1 in). Width: 173 cm (68.1 in). Depth: 12 cm (4.7 in).
SKU: 275061
