Virgil Reading the "Aeneid" to Augustus, Octavia, and Livia
Jean Baptiste Joseph Wicar (French, 1762–1834)
1790–93
View the original$12
Type
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Materials & printing
Archival matte paper, 189 g/m² (10.3 mil), sourced from Japan, printed with multicolor water-based inkjet so every brushstroke stays crisp. Framed prints arrive ready to hang in a .75″ ayous-wood frame with an acrylite front. Sized to standard frames by cropping, never stretching — at most about 3% comes off one edge, which isn’t noticeable on most pieces, and we only offer a size when it stays that small.
Shipping & returns
Made to order and delivered in 5–8 business days (2–4 to print, 3–4 in transit). US shipping only for now. Because each print is made for your order, all sales are final — but if it arrives damaged or defective, send us a photo within 14 days and we’ll replace it free. Full policy.
Why is it this affordable?
A thin, flat margin on every piece — just enough to keep the store running. Most of what you pay is the print itself. We only sell sizes that reproduce at full quality, and we don’t mark up the large sizes the way most shops do.
About this work
In the late 18th century, the French Academy promoted a severely Classical approach to history painting as a means to regenerate art—and in contrast to the perceived decadence of the Rococo style. Jacques-Louis David and his students were leading exponents of this Neoclassical approach, treating antique subjects as moral exemplars for contemporary audiences. Here, David’s student Jean-Baptiste Wicar depicted the response of the Roman emperor Augustus and his family to Virgil’s reading of his epic poem the Aeneid, which tells the story of Aeneas, the Trojan prince who settled in Latium after many adventures and was viewed as an ancestor of Augustus. The emotionally charged gestures of Augustus and his sister Octavia suggest that they identify their own family drama with the heroic events recounted by Virgil.
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Original size
- 111.1 × 142.6 cm (43 3/4 × 56 1/8 in.)
Museum record · 3 owners · 6 exhibitions
Provenance
- Possibly in the possession of the artist until his death in 1834; possibly bequeathed to Wicar’s student, Giuseppe Carattoli (died 1850), Perugia.
- Possibly Mario Praz.
- Marcello and Carlo Sestieri, Rome, by 1963; sold to the Art Institute, 1963.
Exhibitions
- The Cleveland Museum of Art, Neo-Classicism: Style and Motif, 1964, as François Xavier Fabre.
- The Denver Art Museum, Great Stories in Art, February 13–March 27, 1966, no cat.Oshkosh, Wisconsin, The Paine Art Center and Arboretum, Empire Profile, 1968, no cat., as François Xavier Fabre.
- Kansas City, Missouri, The Nelson-Atkins Museum, The Taste of Napoleon, 1969 (in The Nelson Gallery and Atkins Museum Bulletin, 4, 10 ), as François Xavier Fabre.
- The Art Institute of Chicago, Selected Works of Eighteenth-Century French Art in the Collections of The Art Institute of Chicago, 1976, as anonymous.
- New York, Wildenstein Gallery, Consulat–Empire–Restauration: Art in Early XIX Century France, 1982, as French School.
- The Art Institute of Chicago, Canova and France, 1985, no cat.The Art Institute of Chicago, The Art of the Edge: European Frames 1300–1900,1986.
