This ancient painting was discovered by archeologists at the site of Pompeii, the Roman city that was famously destroyed during the volcanic eruption of Vesuvius in the year 79. A certain Fritz Schlesinger (c. 1890-1980) is attributed with photographing or collecting this particular image. As for the subject of the photographed painting, scholars believe it depicts the figure, Iphigenia, from ancient Greek myth and legend. She was the daughter of King Agamemnon (the commander-in-chief of the Greeks during the Trojan War), and as the stories go, Agamemnon offered her as a human sacrifice to the gods in exchange for favorable sailing winds that would carry Agamemnon’s Greek armada off to war. In some versions of the tale (such as the account of Aeschylus), the sacrifice was completed and that was the end of Iphigenia. Yet, according to a popular alternate telling of the tale by the poet, Euripides (484-406 BCE), the goddess, Artemis, appeared at the time of the sacrifice and saved Iphigenia. In that tale, Artemis replaced her with a sacrificial deer and then clandestinely absconded with the rescued princess, ultimately leaving Iphigenia at a temple in Tauris. She was later found and retrieved by her brother, Orestes. It is this storyline that is likely represented in the painting. It probably depicts her either walking to her sacrifice, or showcases her time at the temple in Taurus—both were scenes favored by artists.
In the case of this art piece, the location of the artwork is just as interesting as the subject of the painting, because it experienced the cataclysmic eruption of Vesuvius in the year 79. Fortunately for us, a written account produced by someone who experienced the ancient eruption first-hand still survives. The name of this ancient witness is Pliny the Younger (c. 61/62-113), whose uncle—Pliny the Elder (c. 23-79)—sadly died during the eruption. A friend of their family was the great Roman historian, Tacitus (c. 56-117+), and being his inquisitive self, he asked Pliny the Younger to write him a description of what happened during the volcanic eruption. Pliny accomplished this task by sending two separate letters to the historian, and he thankfully retained copies of the two letters for himself, which were later published and preserved. These letters became the most important eye-witness accounts of the Vesuvius eruption.
According to Pliny the Younger’s own recollection, he was seventeen years old when the Vesuvius volcano exploded. The two Plinys—Older and Younger—and their close family were staying at the nearby naval base of Misenum (modern-day Capo Miseno) at the time. One afternoon in the year 79, a strange plume of smoke began billowing out of Vesuvius, reaching great heights in the sky. Pliny wrote, “Sometimes it looked white, sometimes blotched and dirty, according to the amount of soil and ashes it carried with it” (Pliny the Younger, Letters, 6.16). Young Pliny’s influential uncle, who commanded the local fleet, quickly realized that the darkening skies boded trouble, and he rushed to mobilize the ships for urgent rescue missions.
As the eruption worsened, an earthquake shook the region. Pliny the Younger wrote, “The buildings round us were already tottering, and the open space we were in was too small for us not to be in real and imminent danger if the house collapsed” (Letters, 6.20). By now, debris and smoke in the air was darkening the sky, which made the view of the volcano all the more foreboding. Pliny the Younger wrote, “Meanwhile on Mount Vesuvius broad sheets of fire and leaping flames blazed at several points, their bright glare emphasized by the darkness of night” (Letters, 6.16). Pliny witnessed the volcano’s ash start raining down around him, covering the landscape. He stated, “We were terrified to see everything changed, buried deep in ashes like snowdrifts” (Letters, 6.20). The darkening skies, lava, fires and falling ash were all memorable, but something else left more of an impression on young Pliny—the pyroclastic flow and the waves of gas and ash that seemed to roll over the land and sea. Pliny the Younger wrote, “Soon afterwards the cloud sank down to earth and covered the sea; it had already blotted out Capri and hidden the promontory of Misenum from sight…I looked round: a dense black cloud was coming up behind us, spreading over the earth like a flood” (Letters, 6.20). The tsunami of ash buried cities, such as Pompeii and Herculaneum, killing thousands of people who had not yet fled the region (including Pliny the Elder). The painting featured above survived that violent eruption, and was preserved under the ash until the artwork was rediscovered by archeologists.
Written by C. Keith Hansley
Sources:
- Aeschylus, The Orestia (Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides), translated by Robert Fagles. New York: Penguin Classics, 1979.
- The Letters of Pliny the Younger, translated by Betty Radice. New York: Penguin Classics, 1963, 1969.
- [Euripides, Iphigenia in Aulis] http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0108%3Acard%3D1578
- [Euripides, Iphigenia in Tauris] http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0112%3Acard%3D67
- https://www.europeana.eu/en/item/649/item_RBK5MHB45KHLNJYPKIN3HWWSRJHOC5D7
- https://easydb.lette-verein.de/#/detail/14308
Reminds me of the OT story where God stops Abraham from sacrificing Isaac and substitutes a ram instead.