''Clytemnestra'', also known as ''Clytemnestra after the Murder'', is an 1882 oil painting by John Collier. It has been held by the

Guildhall Art Gallery The Guildhall Art Gallery houses the art collection of the City of London, England. The museum is located in the Moorgate area of the City of London. It is a stone building in a semi-Gothic style intended to be sympathetic to the historic Guil ...

, in the

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

, since 1893. A second version, c. 1914, is held by Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum.

Description and analysis

The painting measures . It depicts

Clytemnestra Clytemnestra (, ; , ), in Greek mythology, was the wife of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, and the half-sister of Helen of Sparta. In Aeschylus' ''Oresteia'', she murders Agamemnon – said by Euripides to be her second husband – and the Trojan p ...

, mythical daughter of the Spartan queen Leda and sister of

Helen of Troy Helen (), also known as Helen of Troy, or Helen of Sparta, and in Latin as Helena, was a figure in Greek mythology said to have been the most beautiful woman in the world. She was believed to have been the daughter of Zeus and Leda (mythology), ...

, who herself became queen of ancient

Mycenae Mycenae ( ; ; or , ''Mykē̂nai'' or ''Mykḗnē'') is an archaeological site near Mykines, Greece, Mykines in Argolis, north-eastern Peloponnese, Greece. It is located about south-west of Athens; north of Argos, Peloponnese, Argos; and sou ...

. In an episode recounted in the tragic play ''

Agamemnon In Greek mythology, Agamemnon (; ''Agamémnōn'') was a king of Mycenae who commanded the Achaeans (Homer), Achaeans during the Trojan War. He was the son (or grandson) of King Atreus and Queen Aerope, the brother of Menelaus, the husband of C ...

'' by

Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; ; /524 – /455 BC) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek Greek tragedy, tragedian often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek tragedy is large ...

, the stern-faced queen is shown at the palace of Argos, shortly after she has killed her husband

in revenge for his

sacrifice Sacrifice is an act or offering made to a deity. A sacrifice can serve as propitiation, or a sacrifice can be an offering of praise and thanksgiving. Evidence of ritual animal sacrifice has been seen at least since ancient Hebrews and Gree ...

of their youngest daughter

Iphigenia In Greek mythology, Iphigenia (; , ) was a daughter of King Agamemnon and Queen Clytemnestra, and thus a princess of Mycenae. In the story, Agamemnon offends the goddess Artemis on his way to the Trojan War by hunting and killing one of Artem ...

to secure favourable winds for the journey to the siege of Troy. Agamemnon returned home with the captured Trojan princess

Cassandra Cassandra or Kassandra (; , , sometimes referred to as Alexandra; ) in Greek mythology was a Trojan priestess dedicated to the god Apollo and fated by him to utter true prophecy, prophecies but never to be believed. In modern usage her name is e ...

, but an enraged Clytemnestra murdered them both (in some accounts she is assisted by their son

Orestes In Greek mythology, Orestes or Orestis (; ) was the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, and the brother of Electra and Iphigenia. He was also known by the patronymic Agamemnonides (), meaning "son of Agamemnon." He is the subject of several ...

, and in others Agamemnon is killed by her lover

Aegisthus Aegisthus (; ; also transliterated as Aigisthos, ) was a figure in Greek mythology. Aegisthus is known from two primary sources: the first is Homer's ''Odyssey'', believed to have been first written down by Homer at the end of the 8th century BC ...

). Clytemnestra is standing in a doorway, holding back a curtain with one hand, and resting her other hand on the very long handle of a double-headed axe, which is dripping blood onto the floor. Her clothes are also spattered with blood, while a body can be dimly seen in the gloomy room beyond. Collier was influenced by

Lawrence Alma-Tadema Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema ( ; born Lourens Alma Tadema, ; 8 January 1836 – 25 June 1912) was a Dutch people, Dutch painter who later settled in the United Kingdom, becoming the last officially recognised Denization, denizen in 1873. Born in ...

, who encouraged Collier to use archaeological discoveries to give his paintings greater historical accuracy. Details of the painting are based on discoveries from excavations of archaeological sites in Greece and of the site of Troy in Turkey. Clytemnestra is wearing a delicate gold headpiece, based on the small "

" diadem, part of the so-called Treasure of Priam discovered by

Heinrich Schliemann Johann Ludwig Heinrich Julius Schliemann (; 6 January 1822 – 26 December 1890) was a German businessman and an influential amateur archaeologist. He was an advocate of the historicity of places mentioned in the works of Homer and an archaeolo ...

in the 1870s. The pattern traced on the axehead is taken from a stone cylinder also from Troy. Her patterned clothes and the architecture of the doorway are based on other archaeological examples, and the column beside the doorway in the painting resembles one from the

Treasury of Atreus The Treasury of Atreus or Tomb of Agamemnon is a large ''tholos'' or beehive tomb constructed between 1300 and 1250 BCE in Mycenae, Greece. It is the largest and most elaborate ''Tholos (architecture), tholos'' tomb known to have been construct ...

(but with its capital incorrectly positioned at the base of the column rather than its top, perhaps based on a similarly inverted contemporaneous display of the column at the British Museum, later corrected). The somewhat androgynous features of Clytemnestra may be based on a production of the

play ''

'' at

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world. With a governing body of a master and aro ...

in 1880, in which a male student Frank Benson acted the part of Clytemnestra. The painting was exhibited at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

in 1882, accompanied by a line from Aeschylus's play: "Him twice I smote – twice groaning prone he fell, / With limbs relaxed; then, prostrate where he lay, / Him with third blow I dowered, votive gift / To Hades, guardian of the dead below." It was presented to the

in 1893 by Mrs Mary Harrison. File:Column of treasury of Atreus.jpg, Reconstruction of a column from the

, at the British Museum File:John-collier-clytemnestra.jpg, Version in Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum, c.1914

Second version

Around 1914, Collier painted a second version of the scene, correcting many of the details of the

Mycenaean period Mycenaean Greece (or the Mycenaean civilization) was the last phase of the Bronze Age in ancient Greece, spanning the period from approximately 1750 to 1050 BC.. It represents the first advanced and distinctively Greek civilization in mainla ...

. The second painting depicts a bare-breasted Clytemnestra with a bloody Mycenaean sword. Many details are different, including the decoration of the floor, and doorway. Clytemnestra wears a long skirt based on Minoan discoveries, replacing the robe in the 1882 version, and the column from the Treasury of Atreus has been put up the right way. It measures , and is held by Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum.

References

''Clytemnestra''
1882, Google Arts & Culture
''Clytemnestra'', 1882, Guildhall Art Gallery
ArtUK
''Clytemnestra'', c.1914, Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum
ArtUK
''The Street of Wonderful Possibilities: Whistler, Wilde and Sargent in Tite Street''
Devon Cox

The Victorian Web
''Clytemnestra''
Collage: The London Picture Archive
''Troy on Display: Scepticism and Wonder at Schliemann's First Exhibition''
Abigail Baker, p. 106-107 {{DEFAULTSORT:Clytemnestra (Collier) 1882 paintings Collection of the Guildhall Art Gallery Works based on Agamemnon (Aeschylus play) Paintings based on works by Aeschylus Paintings by John Collier Clytemnestra Paintings of fictional women