MÉNÉLAS VAINQUEUR. Sur les remparts fumants de la superbe Troie, Ménélas, fils des Dieux, comme une riche proie, Ravit sa blonde Hélène et l'emmène à sa cour Plus belle que jamais de pudeur et d'amour. ILLIADE (Traduction Bareste).

Item Information

Title:
MÉNÉLAS VAINQUEUR. Sur les remparts fumants de la superbe Troie, Ménélas, fils des Dieux, comme une riche proie, Ravit sa blonde Hélène et l'emmène à sa cour Plus belle que jamais de pudeur et d'amour. ILLIADE (Traduction Bareste).
Title (alt.):
THE CONQUEROR MENELAUS. On the smoking ramparts of the superb Troy, Menelaus, son of the gods, carried off a rich prize, His blonde Helen and takes her to his court More beautiful than ever with modesty and love. ILLIAD (Translation Bareste).. Charivari
Description:
This print shows Menelaos and Helen as a married bourgeois couple in all their beauty and happiness. In the background, Troy is in flames. Menelaos, after years of fighting in battle, got his beloved Helen back. He is proudly marching off towards his ships, while she thumbs her nose at him. When this first print of the "Histoire Ancienne" series was published, the Charivari showed Daumier and Ingres mockingly as Siamese twins. It was also suggested that Daumier had just returned from Greece with a sketch book full of new ideas for this series. Beautiful Helen is shown thumbing her nose at Menelaus, a gesture which, according to the editor, Daumier had seen at the Bavarian Court. During the 1840's, a quarrel between painters of the classic and romantic schools had fully flared up. Delacroix asked the "loaded" question: "Who is going to liberate us from the old Greeks?" Daumier succeeded to answer it his own way by showing historic personalities such as Hercules, Pygmalion or Agamemnon in absurd situations.
Donor:
Trustman, Benjamin A., Trustman, Julia M.
Lithographer:
Daumier, Honoré, 1808-1879
Date:
1841
Format:
Drawings/Illustrations
Location:
Brandeis University Libraries
Collection (local):
Benjamin A. and Julia M. Trustman Collection of Honoré Daumier Lithographs
Subjects:
Greek
Destruction
Mythology
France--History--Louis-Philip, 1830-1848
Antiquities in art
Mythology, Greek
Extent:
1 lithograph, b&w, 38 x 25 cm
Link to Item:
http://hdl.handle.net/10192/4870
Terms of Use:
Copyright restrictions may apply. For permission to copy or use this image, contact the Robert D. Farber University Archives and Special Collections Department, Brandeis University Libraries. The following credit line must be included with each item used: Benjamin A. and Julia M. Trustman Collection of Honoré Daumier Lithographs, Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections Department, Brandeis University.
Contact host institution for more information.
Place of origin:
Paris
Notes:
3rd state.
Published in: Le Charivari, December 22, 1841.
Notes (acquisition):
Donated by: Benjamin A. and Julia M. Trustman, 1959.
Identifier:
LD925