Polixene fille du roy priam de troie · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: Polixene fille du roy priam de troie
Subject: Achilles; The Trojan War; Important Women; Famous Women; Polyxena; Neoptolemus
Period: 1450-1500;
Geographic: Troy; Asia Minor
Description: This illumination depicts Polyxena, the daughter of king Priam of Troy, getting executed in front of Achilles’ tomb. Polyxena is illustrated kneeling with her hands crossed while looking down to the ground as she accepts her fate. The man executing Polyxena is Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles. Polyxena had lured Achilles into the temple of Apollo, where Paris shot and killed Achilles with his arrow. Neoptolemus is the person executing her as she is the one who is partly responsible for killing his father. She had done this through her mother’s instructions. Boccaccio explains that he wrote on Polyxena due to her fearlessness before her execution.
Image Creator: Robinet Testard (Illuminator)
Type: Text; Illumination
Identifier: mta:17151
Language: frm
Source Name: Boccace, Des cleres et nobles femmes, traduction française anonyme [Boccaccio, The cleric and noble women, anonymous French translation]
Parent Collection: Boccace, Des cleres et nobles femmes, traduction française anonyme. Illuminations by Robinet Testard (1488-1496); Boccace, Des cleres et nobles femmes, traduction française anonyme. Illuminations by Robinet Testard (1488-1496)
Image: mta_17151_OBJ.jpg
Collection: Early Modern Women
Subject: Achilles; The Trojan War; Important Women; Famous Women; Polyxena; Neoptolemus

Media: mta_17151_OBJ.jpg