Sacrifice of Iphigenia, Jan Steen (1671)
Jan Steen’s late biblical and mythological paintings often surprise and bewilder the viewer, and none more so than this monumental work of 1671. Here the young, beautiful Iphigenia has been brought to an altar to be sacrificed to appease an angry goddess, yet the scene has little of the gravity one would expect from such a serious subject. Surrounding the demure heroine, dressed in virginal white, are an array of theatrical types that seem to overplay their parts: the blood-thirsty executioner, the old crone yelling at the crying child, the despairing father, a conniving priest, supercilious soldiers, and a crowd of curious onlookers awaiting the denouement of the action.
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