| The Trojan Women Setting Fire to Their Fleet | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Claude Lorrain |
| Year | c. 1643 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 105.1 cm × 152.1 cm (41.4 in × 59.9 in) |
| Location | Metropolitan Museum of Art,New York City |
The Trojan Women Set Fire to their Fleet is a mid-17th century painting by the French artistClaude Lorrain, in oils on canvas. It is now in theMetropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Claude Lorrain paintedThe Trojan Women Set Fire to their Fleet around 1643 at the behest of CardinalGirolamo Farnese.[1] The scene is Lorrain's take on a famed event in Book 5 of theAeneid in which the exiled women ofTroy, spurred on by the Greek goddessJuno, burn the Trojan fleet to force their men to stop roaming and settle inSicily. However,Aeneas prays to the godJupiter to save the ships from the flames by summoning a rainstorm; this is alluded to by Lorrain via his inclusion of dark clouds in the top right of the painting.[1]
Lorrain's choice of scene carries additional subtext, as his patron commissioned the painting after returning to Rome from an extensive period of work abroad, withTrojan Women thus evoking thoughts of an end to wandering. According to the Metropolitan, the painting later inspired the British artistJ. M. W. Turner.[1]
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