Panthea, Cyrus, and Araspas

1631-34

Laurent de La Hyre (French, 1606-1656)

This is one of two surviving paintings from Laurent de La Hyre’s series illustrating the story of Queen Panthea’s capture by the armies of Cyrus the Great, the ancient king of Persia. Cyrus, shown here in blue, refused even to gaze upon the beautiful queen, choosing instead to concentrate on affairs of state and turning her care over to his friend Araspas, who ultimately fell in love with her to tragic consequences. La Hyre’s take on this tale of the conflict between love and civic duty was probably made as part of a suite of decorations for a reception room or a private cabinet in a Parisian townhouse.

Status: On View, Gallery 209
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Laurent de La Hyre
Title: Panthea, Cyrus, and Araspas
Place: France (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1631–1634
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 141.9 × 102 cm (55 7/8 × 40 1/8 in.); Framed: 171.5 × 131.5 cm (67 1/2 × 51 3/4 in.)
Credit Line: Major Acquisitions Centennial Endowment
Reference Number: 1976.292
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/111418/manifest.json

[Georges de Scudéry], Le Cabinet de Mr de Scudery, gouverneur de Nostre Dame de La Garde, pt. 1, Paris, 1646, p. 51; reprint, Geneva, 1973.
P[ierre] J[ean] Mariette, Abécédario de P. J. Mariette et autres notes inédites de cet amateur sur les arts et les artistes, vol.3, in Archives de l’art français, vol. 6, Paris, 1854–56, p. 45 no. 1.
Burlington Magazine 118 (1976), p. xcviii (ill.).
“La Chronique des arts: Principales Acquisitions des musées en 1975,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts 6th ser., 89 (1977), suppl. to no., 1293, p. 49, no. 192, ill.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Master Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 1978, p. 25, no. 19.
André Chastel, “Les Etats-Unis et la peinture française: Entre Rome et Paris,” Le Monde, February 2, 1982, p. 13.
Jean Pierre Cuzin, “New York: French Seventeenth-Century Paintings from American Collections,” Burlington Magazine 124 (1982), pp. 529–30.
Patrice Dubois, “La Première Ecole de Paris,” L’Amateur d’art 680 (1982), pp. 9–10 (ill., cover ill).
J. V. Hantz, “La Peinture française du XVIIe siècle dans les collections américaines,” L’Amateur d’art 680 (1982), p. 19.
Robert Fohr, Tours, Musée des Beaux-Arts; Richelieu, Musée Municipal; Azay-le-Ferron, Château: Tableaux français et italiens du XVIIe siècle, Inventaire des collections publiques françaises 27, Paris, 1982, p. 50, under no. 41.
Ekkehard Mai, “La Peinture française du XVIIe siècle dans les collections américaines,” Pantheon 40 (1982), p. 153, fig 2.
Pierre Rosenberg, “France in the Golden Age: A Postscript,” Metropolitan Museum Journal 17 (1982), p. 27, no. 31.
Pierre Rosenberg, “A Golden Century in French Paintings,” Connaissance des arts 25 (February, 1982), p. 74 (cover ill.).
Pierre Rosenberg, “La Peinture française du XVIIe siècle dans les collections des Etats-Unis,” La Revue du Louvre 31, 1 (1982), p. 74, pl. 3.
Pierre Rosenberg and Marc Fumaroli, L’arte s’impara a Roma,” Bolaffiarte 12, 116 (1982), p. 33 (ill.).
Erich Schleier, “La Peinture française du XVIIe siècle dans les collections américaines: France in the Golden Age, part 1,” Kunstchronik 36 (1983), pp. 191–92.
Erich Schleier, “La Peinture française du XVIIe siècle dans les collections américaines: France in the Golden Age, part 2,” Kunstchronik 36 (1983), p. 231.
Jacques Thuiller, Poètes et peintres au XVIIe siècle: l’Example de Tristan,” Cashiers Tristan L’Hermite 6 (1984), pp. 17, 22.
Sylvain Laveissière, in Le Classicisme français: Masterpieces of Seventeenth-Century Painting, exh. cat., Dublin, The National Gallery of Ireland, 1985, p. 28.
Christopher Wright, The French Painters of the Seventeenth Century, London, 1985, p. 192.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Master Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 1988, p. 32 (ill.).
C[atherine] Chevillot, “Laurent de La Hyre (1606–1656),” La Revue du Louvre 38, 5/6 (1988), p. 448.
Guy Boyer, “La Hyre: La Rhétorique de l’image,” Beaux-Arts 65 (February 1989), p. 41 (ill.).
Raoul Ergmann, “La Hyre: Le Retour en grace,” Connaissance des arts 443 (January 1989), p. 104.
Barbara Scott, “Letter from Paris: Homage to Laurent de La Hyre,” Apollo 129 (April 1989), p. 280.
Richard Verdi, “Grenoble, Rennes, Bordeaux: Laurent de La Hyre,” Burlington Magazine 131 (1989), p. 734.
Christopher Wright, The World’s Master Paintings from the Early Renaissance to the Present Day: A Comprehensive Listing of Works by 1,300 Painters and a Complete Guide to Their Locations Worldwide, 1991, vol. 1, p. 240, vol. 2, pp. 62, 446.
M[ichel] H[ilaire] in Grand Siècle. Peintures françaises du XVIIe siècle dans les collections publiques françaises, exh. cat., Montréal, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rennes, Musée des Beaux-Arts, and Montpellier, Musée Fabre, 1993, p. 146, fig. 1, under no. 39.
Susan Wise in Susan Wise and Malcolm Warner, French and British Paintings from 1600 to 1800 in The Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Collection (Chicago, 1996), pp. 82–86, ill.

Paris, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, La Peinture française du XVIIe siècle dans les collections américaines, 1982, cat. 31.
Musée de Grenoble, Laurent de La Hyre, 1606–1656: L’Homme et l’oeuvre, June 13-April 3, 1989, cat. 104; Rennes, France, Musée des Beaux-Arts et d’ Archéologie, May 9-August 31, 1989; Bordeaux, Musée des Beaux-Arts, October 6, 1989-January 6, 1990 [Grenoble only].
Chicago, David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, The Theartical Baroque, 2001, cat. 180.

Art market, Germany [according to Paris 1982, no. 31]. Sold at a public sale, Milan, to Ettore Viancini, Venice [letter of August 24, 1976 from Pierre Rosenberg to Patrice Marandel and note of conversation of Susan Wise with Patrice Marandel in curatorial file]; sold by Viancini to Gilberto Algranti, Milan and London [according to letter and note cited above]; sold by Algranti to Silvano Lodi, Campione d’Italia, and Bruno Meissner, Zurich, 1973 [according to letter and note cited above], passed solely into Meissner’s possession [letter from Bruno Meissner to Susan Wise dated May, 1981 in curatorial file]; sold by Meissner to Art Institute, 1976.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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