''Shepherds Find Zenobia on the Banks of the Araxes'' is an 1850 oil on canvas painting by

William Bouguereau William-Adolphe Bouguereau (; 30 November 1825 – 19 August 1905) was a French academic painter. In his realistic genre paintings, he used mythological themes, making modern interpretations of classical subjects, with an emphasis on the female ...

, now in the

École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts The Beaux-Arts de Paris is a French ''grande école'' whose primary mission is to provide high-level arts education and training. This is classical and historical School of Fine Arts in France. The art school, which is part of the Paris Science ...

. Its subject is drawn from

Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historiography, Roman historians by modern scholars. The surviving portions of his t ...

's '' Histories'' (XII.51), in which

Rhadamistus Rhadamistus ( ka, რადამისტი, radamist'i, hy, Հռադամիզդ, Hřadamizd) (died 58) was a royal prince of the Pharnavazid dynasty of the Kingdom of Iberia who reigned over the Kingdom of Armenia from 51 to 53 and 54 to 55. ...

, king of Armenia, tried to kill his wife

Zenobia Septimia Zenobia ( Palmyrene Aramaic: , , vocalized as ; AD 240 – c. 274) was a third-century queen of the Palmyrene Empire in Syria. Many legends surround her ancestry; she was probably not a commoner and she married the ruler of the city ...

to prevent her falling into enemy hands and then threw her into the river Araxes before riding on. Still alive, she was found by shepherds "in a quiet backwater", who bandaged her wounds and took her to

Artaxata Artashat ( hy, Արտաշատ); Hellenized as Artaxata ( el, Ἀρτάξατα) and Artaxiasata ( grc, Ἀρταξιάσατα), was a large commercial city and the capital of ancient Armenia during the reign of king Artaxias I; the founder of t ...

, whence she travelled on to meet Tiridates. Preparatory drawings for the work survive in the École des beaux-arts and the

Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) ( en, Orsay Museum) is a museum in Paris, France, on the Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art ...

Paul Baudry Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) * Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...

won the main

Prix de Rome The Prix de Rome () or Grand Prix de Rome was a French scholarship for arts students, initially for painters and sculptors, that was established in 1663 during the reign of Louis XIV of France. Winners were awarded a bursary that allowed them t ...

for 1850, but Bouguereau won a consolation second prize, which he used to pay for a stay at the

Villa Medici The Villa Medici () is a Mannerist villa and an architectural complex with a garden contiguous with the larger Borghese gardens, on the Pincian Hill next to Trinità dei Monti in Rome, Italy. The Villa Medici, founded by Ferdinando I de' Medici, ...

. Pierre Daix, ''Pour une histoire culturelle de l'art moderne: de David à Cézanne'', Odile Jacob, 1998 ()

References

Paintings by William-Adolphe Bouguereau 1850 paintings Paintings in the collection of the Beaux-Arts de Paris Paintings based on works by Tacitus {{19C-painting-stub