Ingres’ neo-classical style is characterized by pure contours and figures based on classical sculpture and on Raphael. This small sketch is a study for a larger painting. The large version won Ingres the first prize in 1801 in the competition for the major Rome Scholarship. The scene is from the Iliad. Achilles, holding the lyre on his lap, gives his friends, headed by Odysseus in a red cloak, an astonished welcome. The friends are sent to negotiate with Achilles, who has rebelled against Agamemnon by laying down his weapons, visible to the left in the picture.
<bdi><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Jean-Auguste-Dominique_Ingres" class="extiw" title="w:en:Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres"><span title="French painter (1780-1867)">Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres</span></a>
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1801<div style="display: none;">date QS:P571,+1801-00-00T00:00:00Z/9</div>
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