''Clytemnestra'', also known as ''Clytemnestra after the Murder'', is a 1882 oil painting by John Collier. It has been held by the

Guildhall Art Gallery The Guildhall Art Gallery houses the art collection of the City of London, England. The museum is located in the Moorgate area of the City of London. It is a stone building in a semi-Gothic style intended to be sympathetic to the historic Guild ...

, in the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...

, since 1893. A second version, c. 1914, is held by

Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum The Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum is an art gallery and local museum in Worcester, the county town of Worcestershire, England. History The museum was founded in 1833 by members of the Worcestershire Natural History Society. It is locate ...

Description and analysis

The painting measures . It depicts

Clytemnestra Clytemnestra (; grc-gre, Κλυταιμνήστρα, ''Klytaimnḗstrā'', ), in Greek mythology, was the wife of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, and the twin sister of Helen of Troy. In Aeschylus' ''Oresteia'', she murders Agamemnon – said by Eu ...

, mythical daughter of the Spartan queen

Leda Leda may refer to: Mythology * Leda (mythology), queen of Sparta and mother of Helen of Troy in Greek mythology Places * Leda, Western Australia, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia * Leda makeshift settlement, Bangladesh, a refugee camp ...

and sister of

Helen of Troy Helen of Troy, Helen, Helena, (Ancient Greek: Ἑλένη ''Helénē'', ) also known as beautiful Helen, Helen of Argos, or Helen of Sparta, was a figure in Greek mythology said to have been the most beautiful woman in the world. She was believe ...

, who herself became queen of ancient

Mycenae Mycenae ( ; grc, Μυκῆναι or , ''Mykē̂nai'' or ''Mykḗnē'') is an archaeological site near Mykines in Argolis, north-eastern Peloponnese, Greece. It is located about south-west of Athens; north of Argos; and south of Corinth. Th ...

. In an episode recounted in the tragic play ''

Agamemnon In Greek mythology, Agamemnon (; grc-gre, Ἀγαμέμνων ''Agamémnōn'') was a king of Mycenae who commanded the Greeks during the Trojan War. He was the son, or grandson, of King Atreus and Queen Aerope, the brother of Menelaus, the husb ...

'' by

Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; grc-gre, Αἰσχύλος ; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian, and is often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek ...

, the stern-faced queen is shown at the palace of

Argos Argos most often refers to: * Argos, Peloponnese, a city in Argolis, Greece ** Ancient Argos, the ancient city * Argos (retailer), a catalogue retailer operating in the United Kingdom and Ireland Argos or ARGOS may also refer to: Businesses ...

, shortly after she has killed her husband

in revenge for his

sacrifice Sacrifice is the offering of material possessions or the lives of animals or humans to a deity as an act of propitiation or worship. Evidence of ritual animal sacrifice has been seen at least since ancient Hebrews and Greeks, and possibly exi ...

of their youngest daughter

Iphigenia In Greek mythology, Iphigenia (; grc, Ἰφιγένεια, , ) was a daughter of King Agamemnon and Queen Clytemnestra, and thus a princess of Mycenae. In the story, Agamemnon offends the goddess Artemis on his way to the Trojan War by hunting ...

to secure favourable winds for the journey home at the end of the

siege of Troy In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans (Homer), Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris (mythology), Paris of Troy took Helen of Troy, Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of th ...

. Agamemnon returned home with the captured Trojan princess

Cassandra Cassandra or Kassandra (; Ancient Greek: Κασσάνδρα, , also , and sometimes referred to as Alexandra) in Greek mythology was a Trojan priestess dedicated to the god Apollo and fated by him to utter true prophecies but never to be believe ...

, but an enraged Clytemnestra murdered them both (in some accounts she is assisted by their son

Orestes In Greek mythology, Orestes or Orestis (; grc-gre, Ὀρέστης ) was the son of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon, and the brother of Electra. He is the subject of several Ancient Greek plays and of various myths connected with his madness and ...

, and in others Agamemnon is killed by her lover

Aegisthus Aegisthus (; grc, Αἴγισθος; also transliterated as Aigisthos, ) was a figure in Greek mythology. Aegisthus is known from two primary sources: the first is Homer's ''Odyssey'', believed to have been first written down by Homer at the en ...

). Clytemnestra is standing in a doorway, holding back a curtain with one hand, and resting her other hand on the very long handle of a double-headed axe, which is dripping blood onto the floor. Her clothes are also spattered with blood, while a body can be dimly seen in the gloomy room beyond. Collier was influenced by

Lawrence Alma-Tadema Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, (; born Lourens Alma Tadema ; 8 January 1836 – 25 June 1912) was a Dutch painter who later settled in the United Kingdom becoming the last officially recognised denizen in 1873. Born in Dronryp, the Netherlands, ...

, who encouraged Collier to use archaeological discoveries to give his paintings greater historical accuracy. Details of the painting are based on discoveries from excavations of archaeological sites in Greece and of the site of Troy in Turkey. Clytemnestra is wearing a delicate gold headpiece, based on the small "

" diadem, part of the so-called Treasure of Priam discovered by

Heinrich Schliemann Johann Ludwig Heinrich Julius Schliemann (; 6 January 1822 – 26 December 1890) was a German businessman and pioneer in the field of archaeology. He was an advocate of the historicity of places mentioned in the works of Homer and an archaeologi ...

in the 1870s. The pattern traced on the axehead is taken from a stone cylinder also from Troy. Her patterned clothes and the architecture of the doorway are based on other archaeological examples, and the column beside the doorway in the painting resembles one from the

Treasury of Atreus The Treasury of Atreus or Tomb of Agamemnon is a large ''tholos'' or beehive tomb constructed between 1350 and 1250 BC in Mycenae, Greece.Wace, A. J. (1940). The Treasury of Atreus. ''Antiquity, 14'', 233. ISSN 0003-598X The tomb was used for an un ...

(but with its capital incorrectly positioned at the base of the column rather than its top, perhaps based on a similarly inverted contemporaneous display of the column at the British Museum, later corrected). The somewhat androgynous features of Clytemnestra may be based on a production of the

play ''

'' at

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

in 1880, in which a male student Frank Benson acted the part of Clytemnestra. The painting was exhibited at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

in 1882, accompanied by a line from Aeschylus's play: "Him twice I smote – twice groaning prone he fell, / With limbs relaxed; then, prostrate where he lay, / Him with third blow I dowered, votive gift / To Hades, guardian of the dead below." It was presented to the

in 1893 by Mrs Mary Harrison. File:Column of treasury of Atreus.jpg, Reconstruction of a column from the

, at the British Museum File:John-collier-clytemnestra.jpg, Version in

, c.1914

Second version

Around 1914, Collier painted a second version of the scene, correcting many of the details of the

Mycenaean period Mycenaean Greece (or the Mycenaean civilization) was the last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece, spanning the period from approximately 1750 to 1050 BC.. It represents the first advanced and distinctively Greek civilization in mainland ...

. The second painting depicts a bare-breasted Clytemnestra with a bloody Mycenaean sword. Many details are different, including the decoration of the floor, and doorway. Clytemnestra wears a long skirt based on Minoan discoveries, replacing the robe in the 1882 version, and the column from the Treasury of Atreus has been put up the right way. It measures , and is held by

References

''Clytemnestra''
1882, Google Arts & Culture
''Clytemnestra'', 1882, Guildhall Art Gallery
ArtUK
''Clytemnestra'', c.1914, Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum
ArtUK
''The Street of Wonderful Possibilities: Whistler, Wilde and Sargent in Tite Street''
Devon Cox

The Victorian Web
''Clytemnestra''
Collage: The London Picture Archive
''Troy on Display: Scepticism and Wonder at Schliemann's First Exhibition''
Abigail Baker, p. 106-107 {{DEFAULTSORT:Clytemnestra (Collier) 1882 paintings Collection of the Guildhall Art Gallery Works based on Agamemnon (Aeschylus play) Paintings based on works by Aeschylus Paintings by John Collier