The Sacrifice of Iphigenea Pieter Aertsencirca 1560

The Sacrifice of Iphigenea
Pieter Aertsencirca 1560
From the collection of
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Aertsen’s drawings are characterised by their smooth, elegant style. His elongated, mannerist figures earned Aertsen his nickname, ‘Lange Pier’ (Tall Pieter). The drawing depicts the principal scene from the tragedy Iphigenea in Aulis by the Greek dramatist Euripides. Iphigenea was to be sacrificed to placate Artemis, goddess of the hunt. Here we see King Agamemnon, leader of the Greek armies, raising his sword to run his daughter through.
Details
Title: The Sacrifice of Iphigenea
Date Created: circa 1560
Physical Dimensions: w2600 x h1190 cm
Original Title: Het offer van Iphigeneia
More Info: reference link - Wikipedia on Iphigenia at Aulis - Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen - http://collectie.boijmans.nl/en/disclaimer/
Draughtsman: Pieter Aertsen
Type: Drawing
Rights: Acquired 2008
External Link: Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen http://collectie.boijmans.nl/en/objects?search=%22T%2036%20%28PK%29%22
Medium: Pen in brown ink

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Rotterdam, Netherlands

A visit to Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen is a journey through the history of art. Dutch and European masterpieces provide a comprehensive survey of art from the early Middle Ages to the 21st century, from Bosch, Rembrandt and Van Gogh to Dalí and Christo.

Art collection
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen is one of the oldest museums in the Netherlands. In 1849 the lawyer Boijmans left his art collection to the city of Rotterdam. With the acquisition of the Van Beuningen collection in 1958 the museum got the second part of its name. The museum houses a unique collection of paintings, sculptures and everyday objects. The collection of prints and drawings is one of the best in the world. The museum also organises a diverse programme of spectacular temporary exhibitions throughout the year.

Marvel at the beautiful works by Bruegel the Elder and Rembrandt. Follow the development of Impressionism and Modernism in the paintings of Monet, Van Gogh and Mondriaan. Lose yourself in the dream world of the Surrealists Dalí and Magritte. And the art is not only inside: the museum has a wonderful view of the sculpture garden.

The museum shows how everyday objects have changed over the last eight hundred years, from medieval jugs and glassware from Holland’s Golden Age to Rietveld furniture and contemporary Dutch design. A young generation of visual artists such as Eliasson and Cattelan bring the museum’s art collection up to date.

Pieter Aertsen
1508 - 1575

Pieter Aertsen, called Lange Pier because of his height, was a Dutch painter in the style of Northern Mannerism, who invented the monumental genre scene combining still life and genre painting, and very often also including a biblical scene in the background. He was born and died in Amsterdam, in his lifetime a relatively minor city, and painted there but mainly in Antwerp, then the centre of artistic life in the Netherlands. His genre scenes were influential on later Flemish Baroque painting, and also in Italy, and his peasant scenes preceded by a few years the much better-known paintings produced in Antwerp by Pieter Bruegel the Elder.
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