Shop art print and framed art Sémiramis construisant Babylone by Edgar Degas

Semiramis Building Babylon is a painting by the French painter Edgar Degas, executed in 1860-1862 and now in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. Between 1860 and 1865, on his return from his stay in Italy, the artist wanted to apply the lessons and techniques he had learnt in the Bel Paese and devoted himself to various works on very complex historical subjects full of characters"; a choice that perhaps did not escape the suggestions of Moreau, his great friend at the time. Questioning the value of painting historical subjects, Degas - as the curators of the Musée d'Orsay, where the work is now exhibited, observe - "attempts here [in Semiramie à la construction de Babylone, editor's note] to combine a process of historical reconstruction based on the reproduction of quotations from works of art with a plastic work that assimilates the pictorial codes acquired during his Ingresque training". The painting depicts the legendary Assyrian queen Semiramis as she observes, from a bank of the Euphrates, the construction of Babylon, the city she founded, adopting an austere and hieratic attitude. In this work, too, Degas turned to various cultivated models. The figure of the horse is reminiscent of the frieze in the Parthenon, and the landscape in the background, incomplete and sketched with great chromatic variations, echoes Masaccio's frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel: the whole formal structure of the painting is also influenced by the synthetic constructions of Italian Renaissance masters [...]

 

This artwork is a painting from the classical period. It belongs to the impressionism style.

 

« Sémiramis construisant Babylone » is kept at Musee d'Orsay, Paris, France.

 

Find the full description of Sémiramis construisant Babylone by Edgar Degas on Wikipedia.