Claude Lorrain

Claude executed no less than nine drawings for his late painting depicting The Arrival of Aeneas at Pallanteum, now at Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire (National Trust). The canvas was commissioned in 1675 by Gasparo Paluzzi degli Albertoni, the papal nephew of Clement X (Emilio Altieri). The Altieri family claimed descent from Aeneas and Gasparo was clearly eager to celebrate his position and lineage through Claude's painting. The patron dictated the subject, which was derived from a scene in Virgil's Aeneid (Book VIII: 79-123). In this sheet, Claude establishes the crux of the composition: the arrival of Aeneas's ship, the welcome crowd led by King Evander of Pallene (the city's Greek founder), and a view of Rome in the distance. The setting is expanded in the painting to include a distant view of the Tiber river, with ruins on the far bank, and a bucolic scene with a shepherd, shepherdess, and their flock in the left foreground and more detailed landscape and architecture.