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Apelles and Campaste. Aware that Apelles was wasting away with love Alexander gave him Campeste and above the first art deal ever now was struck girlfriend against sculpture, oh what luck! (From Art and the Antique, a poetic essay by M. Cavé), plate 36(37) from Histoire Ancienne

A work made of lithograph in black, with scraping on stone on cream wove paper, with text added in another hand and letterpress verso.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of lithograph in black, with scraping on stone on cream wove paper, with text added in another hand and letterpress verso.

Date:

published November 30, 1842

Artist:

Honoré Victorin Daumier
French, 1808-1879

About this artwork

Here Daumier humorously described the love triangle between Alexander the Great, his mistress Campaspe, and the painter Apelles. On Alexander’s request, Apelles painted Campaspe in the nude as Aphrodite. In the process, Apelles became so madly in love with her that Alexander kept the painting and gave the artist Campaspe as a gift in return. Even though Apelles would be known as the greatest painter of antiquity, in Daumier’s rendition Campaspe seems horrified to be trading her powerful warrior for a puny artist. Daumier’s inscription suggests Alexander used Apelles’s desire for Campaspe as a convenient opportunity to dispose of his mistress.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Prints and Drawings

Artist

Honoré-Victorin Daumier

Title

Apelles and Campaste. Aware that Apelles was wasting away with love Alexander gave him Campeste and above the first art deal ever now was struck girlfriend against sculpture, oh what luck! (From Art and the Antique, a poetic essay by M. Cavé), plate 36(37) from Histoire Ancienne

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.

Published 1842

Medium

Lithograph in black, with scraping on stone on cream wove paper, with text added in another hand and letterpress verso

Dimensions

Image: 24 × 19.8 cm (9 1/2 × 7 13/16 in.); Sheet: 35.9 × 24.7 cm (14 3/16 × 9 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Max Adler

Reference Number

1942.171

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.

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https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/44494/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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