Arthemesia regina · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture · Center for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: Arthemesia regina
Subject: Artemisia; Important Queens; Devotion; Cremation; Important Women; Famous Women
Period: 1450-1500;
Geographic: Halicarnassus; Caria; Anatolia
Description: Artemisia was married to Mausolus, the king of Caria. Boccaccio explains that when he died, Artemisia was so grieved by his death that instead of putting his ashes in an urn after his cremation, she drank the ashes in order to be closer to him. The right side of the engraving depicts Artemisia cremating her husband’s body in a fire. Mausolus' head is visible in the fire. Artemisia is illustrated scooping her husband’s ashes and putting them into a bag. The left side of the engraving depicts Artemisia drinking her husband’s ashes.
Image Creator: Anonymous (Engraver)
Type: Text; Woodcut Engraving
Identifier: mta:18178
Language: lat
Source Name: Iohannis Bocacij in librum de claris mulieribus
Parent Collection: 1487 Leuven
Image: mta_18178_OBJ.png