Oil Painting-erasistrate Discovering The Cause Of Antiochus' Disease-18th

ERASISTRATE DISCOVERING THE CAUSE OF ANTIOCHUS' ILLNESS 18th century French school Oil on canvas (formerly re-lined) Unframed 113 x 145 cm 1750-1770 Suffering from mortal languor, Antiochus is bedridden on a beautiful Greek bed. To save him, his father, King Seleucus, appealed to the great physician Erasistratus. The latter suspects a suffering in love. He asked that all the women of the palace parade in front of the patient, whose pulse he takes as he goes. When Stratonice comes, wife of the king, the pulse of Antiochus panics in front of his young mother-in-law and Erasistratus can designate the object of his passion. Seleucus, magnanimous, then yields the beautiful Stratonice to his son and the prince recovers. This story by Plutarch, based on a Macedonian legend, had been submitted to the competition of the Royal Academy of Painting in 1774, and this subject earned Jacques-Louis David the Prix de Rome. In his painting, David points to Erasistratus' gesture pointing to Stratonice as the cause of Antiochus' languor. Our version of the legend instead features the following episode, the generosity of Seleucus offering his wife to his son. The dimensions of this painting are approximately the same as those of the paintings submitted to the competition of the Academy. Its more brushed aspect, almost lifted like a large sketch, nevertheless suggests that its author could have been one of the candidates of 1774. Perhaps it is a "modello" for a very large painting whose invoice would be more carefully "finished". The composition is skilful, the artist is of quality. The treatment of an ancient subject shows a painter capable of accessing history painting, the highest level in the hierarchy of genres.