La lacédémonienne (The Spartan Mother)

Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée, the elder (Paris 1725 – Paris 1805). Oil painting on canvas, La lacédémonienne (The Spartan Mother) by Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée the elder (Paris 1725 – Paris 1805), signed and dated 1770. The Spartan mother is seated on the left in a hall lined with doric columns, a table to her right. Blue drapery wound around the columns in the foreground frames the scene. The mother, dressed in white trimmed with gold braid, presents a shield to her son who wears armour and a helmet with a red plume. Since it was exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1771, the scene has traditionally been associated with Plutarch's Life of Lycurgus (75 AD) when a Spartan mother says: 'Bring this back from battle, or be brought back upon it [dead]' but the specific episode has not been found in the literature. Stourhead, Wiltshire (Accredited Museum)