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Secondary sourcePainting19th century

Visite à l'atelier de Phidias

Louis Hector Leroux · 19th century

A 19th-century painting by Louis Hector Leroux imagining Pericles and Aspasia visiting the sculptor Phidias's workshop to see his statue of Athena.

This painting imagines Pericles visiting the sculptor Phidias's workshop, reflecting his patronage of Athenian art.

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Painting of an ancient Greek workshop with a tall white statue of a goddess on a scaffold-lined platform. Robed figures and several nude figures gather in a columned hall, some looking toward the statue, a standing figure in a yellow robe and helmeted figure at right.
Louis Hector Leroux, Visite à l'atelier de Phidias, 19th century. Musée Bonnat-Helleu, Bayonne, France.

About this source

What it is

This oil painting, titled Visite à l'atelier de Phidias (Visit to the Workshop of Phidias), was made by French artist Louis Hector Leroux in the 19th century. It is held at the Musée Bonnat-Helleu in Bayonne, France, and measures 1.22 by 0.66 metres.

Why it matters

The painting imagines a scene from ancient Athens: Pericles and Aspasia visiting the workshop of the sculptor Phidias as he unveils his great ivory-and-gold statue of Athena, made for the Parthenon around 438 BC. It reflects 19th-century fascination with classical Greece and shows how artists imagined the relationships between Pericles, his companion Aspasia, and the artists who shaped Athens's golden age.

Look closer

  • Why might Leroux have chosen this particular moment — the unveiling of a statue — to paint?
  • What does the painting suggest about the relationship between political leaders and artists in ancient Athens?
  • Since this scene was imagined centuries later, what parts of it are based on history and what parts are the artist's invention?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Pericles on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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