Andromache in Captivity

Andromache in Captivity

Frederic, Lord Leighton

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Hector's widow Andromache is shown here arriving at Epirus where, following the Greek victory in the Trojan War, she has been awarded as a prize to Achilles's son Neoptolemus. When Leighton's painting "Captive Andromache" (Manchester City Art Gallery) was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1888, the catalogue included these lines from Homer's "Iliad" (translated by Elizabeth Barrett Browning): Some standing by, Marking thy tears fall, shall say 'This is she, The wife of that same Hector that fought best Of all the Trojans when all fought for Troy.' This photogravure was created for a portfolio that reproduced paintings shown at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1889.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.