Cy apres sensuit hystoire de policena, fille du roy pryame · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: Cy apres sensuit hystoire de policena, fille du roy pryame
Subject: Neoptolemus; Important Women; Famous Women; Achilles; The Trojan War; Polyxena
Period: 1400-1450;
Geographic: Asia Minor; Ancient Greece; Troy
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. Boccaccio explains that he wrote on Polyxena due to her fearlessness before her execution.
Image Creator: Anonymous (Illuminator)
Type: Text; Illumination
Identifier: mta:18445
Language: frm
Source Name: Livre que fist Jehan BOCACE de Certalde des cleres et nobles femmes, lequel il envoia à Audice de Accioroles de Florence, contesse de Haulteville [Book from Giovanni Boccaccio of Certaldo called the cleric and noble women, of which he sent to Audice Accioroles of Florence, Countess of Haulteville]
Parent Collection: 1401 Florence
Image: mta_18445_OBJ.jpg