Babylonian captivity (painting)

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Eugène Delacroix: Babylonian Captivity , 1838/1847; Palais Bourbon, Paris

Babylonian Captivity (in the French original: Captivité à Babylone ) is the title of a painting by Eugène Delacroix , created between 1838 and 1847. It is on the ceiling of the Bibliothèque de l'Assemblée nationale in the Palais Bourbon , the seat of the French National Assembly in Paris .

background

Palais Bourbon, 19th century

Between 1838 and 1847, Eugène Delacroix designed the ceiling of the library in the Palais Bourbon in Paris with oil paintings on behalf of the French Chamber of Deputies. The order comprised the five domes of the 42-meter-long room and two semi-domes over the apses closing each of the 10-meter-wide narrow sides . In the form of allegories , Delacroix designed a cycle of paintings that, inspired by the location as well as the meaning and function of space, should represent European civilization appropriately. Based on the ancient seven artes liberales, the five domes were given figurations on seven themes: poetry , theology , legislation and rhetoric , history and philosophy and science , divided into the four pendentives of the domes, the vaulted vaults given by the architecture .

The paintings

The Babylonian captivity is in the dome with theology ; the other three gussets contain representations of Adam and Eve , the interest penny (in the mouth of the fish) and the beheading of John the Baptist .

In the foreground of the picture a couple is sitting with a child under a willow tree with a lyre hanging in it. The half-bared woman leans her head, who is wearing a turban, on the shoulder of the dark-skinned, strong man who looks at the sky. The naked child hugs its mother and, with its back to the viewer, looks into the depths of the picture, over a person who, lying on his stomach, supports his head in his hands and also looks at the sky. Following the child's gaze, the observer recognizes the hint of an oriental city in the background on the left, with tinned walls and a tower-like building. In the right background of the picture you can see two female silhouettes, scooping water from a body of water that, cut from the edge of the picture, lines the family square in the foreground. A medallion in the tip of the gusset below the picture names the title: Captivité à Babylone .

The painting imagines the first two verses of Psalm 137 : “We sat by the waters of Babylon and wept when we thought of Zion. We hung our harps on the willows that are there ” . The biblical exile of the Judeans in Babylon is interpreted allegorically by Delacroix, an admirer of Voltaire , as a romantic motif of longing and nostalgia, expressed by the posture of the sunken, infinitely looking figures and by the oriental image association of Babylon and Euphrates.

literature

  • Yves Sjöberg: La décoration monumentale. Bourbon Palace . In: ders .: Pour comprendre Delacroix . Beauchesne 1963; P. 134–151 Online (incomplete)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Yves Søeberg: Pour comprendre Delacroix (1963), p 140
  2. ^ National Assembly : Plafond de la bibliothèque. Peintures de Delacroix
  3. ^ National Assembly : Plafond de la bibliothèque. Peintures de Delacroix: La captivité à Babylone
  4. ↑ Yves Søeberg: Pour comprendre Delacroix (1963), p 149

Web links

Commons : Eugène Delacroix: Library of the Palais Bourbon  - album with pictures, videos and audio files