Description:
Needlework and painted picture on silk
Label Text:
Building a Collection, September 27, 2025-February 23, 2025: This finely worked picture is attributed to Sally Hale while she was a student at the Misses Patten School in Hartford, CT, around 1815. Founded in 1785, the school became one of the most prestigious girls’ academies in the early 19th century, attracting the daughters of elite families from around New England. Needlework was an important part of their curriculum, and pictures produced there were recognized for their sophistication in design and execution. This one, done primarily in paint, illustrates a popular classical subject, a scene from the life of the ancient Roman general Scipio Africanus, in which Scipio is shown after his defeat of Carthage gallantly returning his captive, Lucretia, to her fiancé, Allucius. The story’s message of chivalry and moral conduct proved instructive for schoolgirls. Although the picture aspires to illustrate a scene from the ancient world, the male figures’ clothing is more fantastical than accurate. Lucretia, meanwhile, is depicted in a fashionable dress with a fichu around her neck in the contemporary neoclassical style. With its factories and smokestacks, the detailed landscape in the background is also a far cry from ancient Carthage.
Subjects:
Silk Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2024.5 |
