3-068-820 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Achilles Lamenting the Death of Patroclus, c1800. Additional Info: The work, which illustrates Book 18 of the Iliad (320-346), is Classical in style and is characterised by the meticulous outlines of the figures, cogent composition, painstaking rendering of the details of historical garments and weaponry and theatricality, as it were, which reveals itself through slightly artificial poses and gestures that are marked by certain grandiloquence and pomposity. Achilles, who after a quarrel with Agamemnon, a second Greek commander in the war against Troy, withdrew from combat, was deeply shattered by the death of his friend Patroclus. The painting represents Achilles bewailing the death of his friend, whose body has just been brought from the battlefield. Patroclus, who left for battle in Achilles' armour, was killed by Hector, the son of Priam, the mythological king of Troy, who confused him with his friend Achilles.