The Sacrifice of Polyxena

The ghost of Achilles, rising from his tomb, demands that his bride Polyxena be killed: the Trojan princess, wearing a white wedding gown, extends her arm toward the priest brandishing the knife and with great dignity steps forward, while a throng of Greeks and Trojans watches with mixed emotions. The legend holds that Achilles was offered Polyxena’s hand to end the war, was ambushed by her brother Paris at the altar and shot in the heel, and vengefully proclaimed that she be sacrificed at his tomb. Giovanni Battista Pittoni, the great Venetian history painter of the Rococo, made an appealing picture of mythological martyrdom — elegant, richly garbed figures posed before elaborate antique architecture, the violence held at a graceful distance. The painting is held in the J. Paul Getty Museum.