English: Jason and Hypsipyle by Henri Roux Ainé (translated related text): This painting, found in the Quaestor's house at Pompeii, has furnished matter for conjecture and discussion among the critics. Let us expose the situation of the characters before attempting the explanation of the subject. A young woman, seated on a gilded throne with a similar suppedaneum, adorned with a diadem of pearls, a necklace and bracelets of gold, dressed in a white tunic so transparent that it shows the color of flesh, and wearing over this tunic an ample cloak of violet purple, lowers her gaze, imprinted with the deepest pain, towards her breast which she seems at the same time to discover and to indicate with her hand. Her supplications seem to be addressed to a young man, who, standing in front of her, in the heroic costume, with the ephaptide, the parazonium and the scepter, seems to be preparing to leave, while making a gesture of compassion and casting upon the young woman looks full of regret and love. A second woman, whose face has been destroyed by time, and who is dressed in a green tunic with a yellow cloak, seems to act as a mediator between the two characters: her hand seems to hold the young man back. All these circumstances can only apply, according to us, to a single subject, the departure of Jason, who, after spending two years at Lemnos with Hypsipyle, queen of the Lemnians, left her pregnant to continue his expedition. The heroic costume and the scepter befit the chief of the Argonauts; the diadem, the purple and the throne indicate a queen who rules by herself, and not only the wife or the daughter of a king. Finally, and this is quite decisive, what divinity can represent this statuette which poses on one of the legs of the armchair, or rather on a small colouette decorated with foliage, erected next to the throne, and which has the figure of a man dressed in a long robe and carrying like a scepter a lotus branch with its blooming flower? This divinity can only be a Bacchus-Osiris. Hypsipyle, as she says herself, is the granddaughter of Bacchus and Ariadne: it is natural that one finds near her throne the image of her glorious ancestor.

Note: The Quaestor's House is now known as the House of the Dioscuri. There is some disagreement with the subjects of this painting. G. Marsigli identified the subjects as Phaedra, Averne (mostly missing) and Hippolytus in 1828.

Identifier: herculanumetpomp18703barr (find matches)
Title: Herculanum et Pompéi, recueil général des peintures, bronzes, mosaïques, etc., découverts jusqu'à ce jour, et reproduits d'apreès Le antichita di Ercolano, Il Museo borbonico, et tous les ouvrages analogues
Year: 1870 (1870s)
Authors: Barré, Louis, 1799-1857 Roux, H. (Henri), Sr Bouchet, Adolphe
Subjects: Art, Greco-Roman
Publisher: Paris, Firmin Didot frères, fils et cie
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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Text Appearing Before Image:
jV. Jieitai t A . iH . V. 5 . P . 53
Text Appearing After Image:
/rr r r/ ;/r/ DEUXIÈME SERIE. 10 Dans cette fresque, Hercule tient sou fils sur ses ge-noux, et semble heureux de la conservation miraculeusede lenfant. La biche, joyeuse et caressante, vient sou-rire à son nourrisson, qui la flatte dune main, et qui delautre lui présente un rameau vert, comme sil voulait lanourrir à son tour. Le contraste de la conformation deces trois êtres si divers, celui des sentiments dont ils sontanimés, sans en excepter la pauvre biche elle-même, de-vaient donner à ce groupe beaucoup dintérêt et de vie :malheureusement lexécution mesquine et négligée nerépond ni à la beauté du sujé*t, ni même à linventionet à la disposition du tableau. La vignette représente le char de Diane, auquel étaientattachés un cerf et une biche, momentanément dételés :peut-être cependant les deux animaux sont-ils femelles,car on donnait des cornes aux biches de Diane (1), ainsique nous lavonsvu, parexemple, dans le sacrifice dIphi-génie. Ce char porte le car

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