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Guillaume Courtois, known as Borgognone, The Death of Archimedes

    • Data:
      1660s
    • Materiali:
      Oil on canvas
    • Dimensioni:
      92,3 cm base , height 107 cm
    • Collocazione:
      Ariccia, Museo del Barocco
    • Inventario:
      inv. CFa 11
  • Guillaume Courtois, known as Borgognone, The Death of Archimedes

The painting shows Archimedes being killed by a Roman soldier during the siege of Syracuse in 212 BC. The painter adheres closely to one of the stories narrated by Plutarch, who describes the scientist busy resolving a geometry problem. A popular subject in 17th-century painting for its high moral significance, it seems to have been inspired by a better-known composition by Pier Francesco Mola.