Full title | The Capture of the Golden Fleece |
---|---|
Artist | Jean-François de Troy |
Artist dates | 1679 - 1752 |
Series | Sketches for the Story of Jason |
Date made | 1742-3 |
Medium and support | Oil on canvas |
Dimensions | 55.6 x 81 cm |
Acquisition credit | Presented by Mr and Mrs Eliot Hodgkin through the Art Fund, 1987 |
Inventory number | NG6512 |
Location | Not on display |
Collection | Main Collection |
This is the third of a series of seven illustrations of the story of Jason made as sketches for cartoons for the Gobelins tapestry works in Paris. The Gallery also owns the first sketch from the series: Jason swearing Eternal Affection to Medea.
Jason has set out to capture the Golden Fleece, and has used the sorceress Medea’s magic to put to sleep the dragon guarding it. Medea looks up at the Fleece and gestures in wonder towards Jason and the slumbering dragon. Some of the Jason’s shipmates admiringly watch him pull down the Fleece, while others load the Argo ready for the triumphant departure of Jason and Medea.
De Troy made several changes between his sketch of this scene and its related cartoon (Musée d'art Roger-Quilliot, Clermont-Ferrand), perhaps reflecting alterations requested by Philibert Orry, who had commissioned the tapestry series on behalf of the French king.
This is the third of the series of seven illustrations of the story of Jason made by Jean-François de Troy as sketches for cartoons for the Gobelins tapestry works in Paris. The Gallery also owns the first sketch from the series: Jason swearing Eternal Affection to Medea. The sketches reveal the incredible ease and freedom with which de Troy worked on this small scale.
De Troy used the Roman poet Ovid’s Metamorphoses (Book VII) as the source of the story of Jason for the first five scenes in the series. Jason and his crew of Argonauts have been sent on a quest by King Pelias of Iolcus in Thessaly to capture the Golden Fleece so that Jason may take his rightful place on the throne. The Golden Fleece – the golden wool of a winged ram – was a symbol of kingship which was heavily guarded in Colchis, on the Black Sea.
Jason arrives in Colchis on board his ship, the Argo. The enchantress Medea, daughter of the king of Colchis, falls in love with him and decides to help him in his quest to capture the Golden Fleece. She agrees to let him use her magic if he promises to marry her. In the first sketch of de Troy’s series, Jason swearing Eternal Affection to Medea, we see her giving her magic herbs to Jason in return for his promise to make her his wife. In the second scene of the series, Jason tames two fire-breathing bulls and yokes them to a plough – a task he must complete to win the Golden Fleece.
In this, the third scene, Jason has used Medea’s magic to put to sleep the dragon guarding the Golden Fleece. He pulls the fleece down from the tree where it is tied. Medea looks up at the Fleece and gestures in wonder towards Jason and the slumbering dragon. Some of the Argonauts admiringly watch Jason grabbing the Fleece, while others direct the loading of the Argo ready for the triumphant departure of Jason and Medea.
De Troy seems to have had two prints in mind when devising his own composition: Sébastien Leclerc’s Jason with the Dead Dragon and Charles Audran’s engraving after a drawing by Pietro da Cortona, from which the pose of Jason appears to be derived (both prints are now in The British Museum, London). He made several changes between his sketch of this scene and its related cartoon (Musée d'art Roger-Quilliot, Clermont-Ferrand), perhaps reflecting changes requested by Philibert Orry, who had commissioned the series on behalf of the French king. In the cartoon, Medea’s pose is more commanding and self-assured, the relative size of the dragon is reduced and Jason heroically cuts down the Golden Fleece with his sword rather than pulling it down from the branch. De Troy also changed the costumes of Jason and Medea to match the colours of those in Jason swearing Eternal Affection to Medea. These colours were then retained throughout the series for decorative continuity and to make the principal characters easier to spot in crowded compositions.
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The Capture of the Golden Fleece
Sketches for the Story of Jason
Jason swearing Eternal Affection to Medea and The Capture of the Golden Fleece are two of a series of seven illustrations of the story of Jason. Based on episodes in the Roman poet Ovid’s Metamorphoses, they were made as sketches for cartoons for the Gobelins tapestry works in Paris.
The illustrations were commissioned on behalf of the king of France in 1742. The sketches were finished by 15 February 1743 and the full-size painted cartoons were completed by the end of August 1746. They arrived in Paris in September 1748 and weaving began at the Gobelins works the following year. No less than eight complete sets of tapestries were made, including one which was hung in the king’s room and throne room in the palace of Versailles. Another of the tapestry sets is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Jason swearing Eternal Affection to Medea and The Capture of the Golden Fleece are two of a series of seven illustrations of the story of Jason made by Jean-François de Troy as sketches for cartoons for the Gobelins tapestry works in Paris.
Between 1737 and 1740 de Troy painted a series of seven tapestry cartoons illustrating The Story of Esther. He exhibited them at the Salon of 1742 where they were seen by Philibert Orry, count of Vignory, who wrote to de Troy in Rome, commissioning another series of seven cartoons on a different subject for the king of France. The story of the biblical king Solomon and that of the classical hero Jason were suggested. De Troy wrote to Orry that, convinced he would choose the story of Jason, he had already made a sketch of the largest picture, Jason taming the Bulls, which he promised to send as soon as it could be rolled up for transport. In fact de Troy did not send any sketches until he had finished the whole set, writing that it would be easier for Orry to judge them when seen all together.
The first five of the sketches were: Jason swearing Eternal Affection to Medea; Jason taming the Bulls (Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham); The Combat of Soliders born from Serpent’s teeth (Musée du Petit Palais, Paris); The Capture of the Golden Fleece and Medea making Jason’s father Aeson Young Again (sold at Sotheby’s, New York 25 January 2001). These were all episodes based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses. For his sixth and seventh scenes de Troy chose episodes that do not occur in the Metamorphoses but are recounted in Euripides' tragedy Medea. They occur later in the story, after Jason has abandoned Medea in favour of his new bride Glauce. In the sketch for de Troy’s sixth scene, Glauce’s father Cresus is consumed by the poisoned cloak sent by Medea (Musée du Petit Palais, Paris) and in the seventh, Medea rises in her chariot after killing her two children fathered by Jason (location unknown).
The sketches were finished by 15 February 1743 and the cartoons were completed by the end of August 1746. They arrived in Paris in September 1748 and weaving began at the Gobelins works the following year. No less than eight complete sets of tapestries were woven, including one which was hung in the king’s room and throne room in the palace of Versailles. Another of the tapestry sets is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
The series may have been intended to express the courage of King Louis XV of France. However, the German Romantic writer Goethe viewed the tapestries in a different light. He saw them in 1770, when they were on display in a pavilion overlooking the Rhine that had been erected to welcome Marie Antoinette, who was then on her way to France to marry the dauphin (the future king Louis XVI), who was beheaded during the French Revolution. For Goethe, the tragedy of Jason and Medea was a sinister presage of the future.


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