"Automedon with the Horses of Achilles" by Henri Regnault

I honestly do not know very much about this painting specifically. I saw it when I went to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and I was fascinated enough to take a picture of it. It is a very powerful painting. It has a very large canvas, over ten feet tall by ten feet wide. Like I said, I do not know very much about this painting, but my guess is it is Neoclassical. It was created when the Neoclassic style was popular. The style features a variety of characteristics, many of which are in this painting. One characteristic is vertical and horizontal lines. The man, Automedon, reaches his arm up, and the line beginning with his left hand is followed all the way through to his left foot, creating a very strong vertical line. One of the horse's legs echoes the leg of Automedon. The leg of the other horse (the rearing horse) is almost parallel to the ground, creating a horizontal line. Another characteristic of Neoclassical paintings is a subject from Roman or Greek mythology or history. The subject matter of this piece is a Greek myth from Homer's Iliad. Automedon is the charioteer for Achilles. The painting shows Automedon attempting to restrain the divine horses Xanthos (the darker brown horse) and Balios (the chestnut horse). The two horses can see the future and know their master will die in battle, so they are upset because they do not want to go to battle. The power of the horses is evident. They have bulging muscles that could not possibly belong to a normal horse. Neoclassical also stresses drawing with lines, instead of color, so this means that the figures have strong lines defining them. This is evident in this piece. There is not any brushwork in Neoclassical works and this is no exception. While I do not know for sure if this piece is Neoclassical, I think it is a pretty good guess considering it contains many Neoclassical characteristics. I love this piece. It is truly powerful, especially when you are standing right in front of it. It takes my breath away. To fully experience this piece, one must stand in front of the real thing. It's power is unrelenting.