{"data":{"id":100061,"api_model":"artworks","api_link":"https:\/\/api.artic.edu\/api\/v1\/artworks\/100061","is_boosted":false,"title":"Mount Athos Carved as a Monument to Alexander the Great","alt_titles":null,"thumbnail":{"lqip":"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhCwAFAPUAADs0F0A1EEQ3Fkg9Fkc9GUY5HEQ6H0c+H0k7GEg+Gk4+GU09Hkw+H0dAHlJFGEtBKU1FLlFDJFtLIVBJKFZKLFtPMF1VM1hQNV1WPV5WPWdTK2NTMW9bNWRZP2JcTW5oSnFlSnZtW4N3XYB4X4N7b4t\/bI2CaYiAb5SBaZmEa46EdpuMdpmQfKGTfaOVfqKYfa+ZfJyWhaWXgqqchqudh7SggrKkigAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACH5BAAAAAAALAAAAAALAAUAAAYywMbE8jmVUKmVipQ4YF6sWA0mc3UGBIDINqO1Qh6IA8F4gEyjzKVCCQgWhkJkw9FIFEEAOw==","width":7649,"height":3456,"alt_text":"A work made of oil on canvas."},"main_reference_number":"1983.36","has_not_been_viewed_much":false,"boost_rank":null,"date_start":1796,"date_end":1796,"date_display":"1796","date_qualifier_title":"","date_qualifier_id":null,"artist_display":"Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes (French, 1750\u20131819)","place_of_origin":"France","description":"<p>Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes, a leading landscape artist in late-18th-century France, sought to elevate the art of landscape to the level of history painting. In the hierarchy of subjects set by the French artistic establishment, the painting of inspiring religious and historical narratives was placed higher than the imitation of nature. Valenciennes followed the 17th-century precedent of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/artists\/36259\">Nicolas Poussin<\/a> by imbuing his landscapes with moral content. This work and its companion, <em>Alexander at the Tomb of Cyrus the Great<\/em>, address questions of fame and mortality through episodes from the life of Alexander the Great (356\u2013323 B.C.). Here Valenciennes depicted an unrealized project to perpetuate Alexander\u2019s glory\u2014a monumental image of the ruler carved into Mount Athos.<\/p>\n","short_description":null,"dimensions":"41.9 \u00d7 91.4 cm (16 1\/2 \u00d7 36 in.); Framed: 59.4 \u00d7 109 \u00d7 7.7 cm (23 3\/8 \u00d7 42 7\/8 \u00d7 3 in.)","dimensions_detail":[{"depth":null,"width":91,"height":41,"diameter":null,"clarification":null},{"depth":7,"width":109,"height":59,"diameter":null,"clarification":"Framed"}],"medium_display":"Oil on canvas","inscriptions":"Inscribed lower right: P. Valenciennes \/ [...] 1796","credit_line":"Purchased with funds provided by Mrs. Harold T. Martin","catalogue_display":null,"publication_history":"F. P. Seguier, A Critical and Commercial Dictionary of the Works of Painters (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1870), p. 211.\n\nRalph N. James, Painters and Their Works (London: L. U. Gill, 1897), vol. 3, p. 154.\n\nWerner Oechslin, \u201cDinocrates and the Myth of the Megalomaniacal Institution of Architecture,\u201d Daidalos 4 (1982), pp. 12\u201313 (ill.), pp. 22, 26 n. 7.\n\n\u201cFrench Paintings Recently Acquired by The Art Institute of Chicago,\u201d Burlington Magazine 126, 976 (1984), p. 463, fig. 86.\n\nMargaret Smith in Alan Wintermute, ed., Claude to Corot: The Development of Landscape Painting in France, exh. cat. (New York: Colnaghi, 1990), pp. 250, under cat. 52,  256 (ill.), 258, under cat. 55.\n\nMartin Warnke, Political Landscape: The Art History of Nature (London: Reaktion Books, 1994), pp. 90, 102 (ill.).\n\nSusan Wise and Malcolm Warner, French and British Paintings from 1600 to 1800 in The Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Collection (Art Institute of Chicago\/Princeton University Press, 1996), pp. 146\u201352 (ill.).\n\nGraham Speake, Mount Athos: Renewal in Paradise (New Haven, Conn; London: Yale University Press, 2002) pp. 14\u20135 (ill.).","exhibition_history":"Art Institute of Chicago, The Art of the Edge: European Frames, 1300\u20131900, October 17\u2013December 14, 1986, cat. 56.","provenance_text":"James Hunt (died 1801), London, offered for sale, Christie\u2019s, London, February 5, 1802,  lot 62, bought in [according to Maria Wilson of Christie\u2019s, letter of January 9, 1996, to Larry Feinberg, in curatorial files]; Hunt family, London.  Reverend George Augustus Frederick Hart (died 1872), M. A., Vicar of Arundel, Tower House, Arundel, Sussex; by descent to his niece Catherine (Mrs. John Lord); sold at Tower House, Arundel, Sotheby\u2019s, May 20\u201321, 1873, lot 130, to G. Fry for \u00a336 [British Museum annot. cat.].  Alderman Philip Spowart (died 1945), Berwick-upon-Tweed, from c. 1937 [according to recollection of Alan G. Burns, letter of February 9, 1988, in curatorial file]; his widow, Anne Nicholson Spowart (n\u00e9e Wood); given to her nephew, Alan G. Burns, Berwick-upon-Tweed, 1960 [Alan G. Burns letters of April 4, 1984, and February 9, 1988, in curatorial file]; sold, Henry Spencer and Sons, Retford, Nottinghamshire, November 9, 1978, lot 212, to Crozier acting on behalf of Trafalgar Galleries and P. and D. Colnaghi, London, 1978 [A. G. E. Marriot letter of April 10, 1984, and notes in curatorial file]; transferred to Colnaghi, New York, 1982; sold to the Art Institute, 1983.","edition":null,"publishing_verification_level":"Web Cataloged","internal_department_id":14,"fiscal_year":null,"fiscal_year_deaccession":null,"is_public_domain":true,"is_zoomable":true,"max_zoom_window_size":-1,"copyright_notice":null,"has_multimedia_resources":false,"has_educational_resources":false,"has_advanced_imaging":false,"colorfulness":24.7767,"color":{"h":41,"l":30,"s":32,"percentage":0.3353228533266082,"population":1077},"latitude":null,"longitude":null,"latlon":null,"is_on_view":false,"on_loan_display":null,"gallery_title":null,"gallery_id":null,"nomisma_id":null,"artwork_type_title":"Painting","artwork_type_id":1,"department_title":"Painting and Sculpture of Europe","department_id":"PC-10","artist_id":32992,"artist_title":"Pierre Henri de Valenciennes","alt_artist_ids":[],"artist_ids":[32992],"artist_titles":["Pierre Henri de Valenciennes"],"category_ids":["PC-10"],"category_titles":["Painting and Sculpture of Europe"],"term_titles":["oil on canvas","18th Century","oil painting","oil paint (paint)","alexander the great","painting techniques","painting (image making)","painting","painting","paint","canvas","paint","oil paintings (visual works)","french","monumental structures","monuments","people","figure","figures","women","men","animals","dog","dogs","river","mountain","mountains","trees","landscape","bushes","landscapes","rocks","painting","european painting"],"style_id":"TM-13379","style_title":"18th Century","alt_style_ids":[],"style_ids":["TM-13379"],"style_titles":["18th Century"],"classification_id":"TM-66","classification_title":"oil on canvas","alt_classification_ids":["TM-10387","TM-78","TM-14976","TM-9","TM-54"],"classification_ids":["TM-66","TM-10387","TM-78","TM-14976","TM-9","TM-54"],"classification_titles":["oil on canvas","paint","oil paintings (visual works)","french","painting","european painting"],"subject_id":"TM-12015","alt_subject_ids":["TM-12812","TM-12906","TM-8810","TM-14859","TM-15161","TM-8735","TM-10121","TM-12218","TM-14335","TM-8865","TM-15170","TM-14169","TM-12351","TM-11205","TM-14145","TM-15367","TM-8657","TM-12407"],"subject_ids":["TM-12015","TM-12812","TM-12906","TM-8810","TM-14859","TM-15161","TM-8735","TM-10121","TM-12218","TM-14335","TM-8865","TM-15170","TM-14169","TM-12351","TM-11205","TM-14145","TM-15367","TM-8657","TM-12407"],"subject_titles":["alexander the great","monumental structures","monuments","people","figure","figures","women","men","animals","dog","dogs","river","mountain","mountains","trees","landscape","bushes","landscapes","rocks"],"material_id":"TM-2451","alt_material_ids":["TM-13502","TM-2577","TM-3124"],"material_ids":["TM-2451","TM-13502","TM-2577","TM-3124"],"material_titles":["oil paint (paint)","painting","paint","canvas"],"technique_id":"TM-4273","alt_technique_ids":["TM-3971","TM-3891","TM-14210"],"technique_ids":["TM-4273","TM-3971","TM-3891","TM-14210"],"technique_titles":["oil painting","painting techniques","painting (image making)","painting"],"theme_titles":[],"image_id":"6f00201c-5257-3e7f-a399-e70da5cdadab","alt_image_ids":[],"document_ids":[],"sound_ids":[],"video_ids":[],"text_ids":[],"section_ids":[],"section_titles":[],"site_ids":[],"suggest_autocomplete_all":[{"input":["1983.36"],"contexts":{"groupings":["accession"]}},{"input":["Mount Athos Carved as a Monument to Alexander the Great"],"weight":2211,"contexts":{"groupings":["title"]}}],"source_updated_at":"2026-07-08T16:36:41-05:00","updated_at":"2026-10-01T20:51:16-05:00","timestamp":"2026-10-19T17:22:53-05:00"},"info":{"license_text":"The `description` field in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Generic License (CC-By) and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu. All other data in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) 1.0 designation and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu.","license_links":["https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/zero\/1.0\/","https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/terms"],"version":"1.16"},"config":{"iiif_url":"https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/iiif\/2","website_url":"https:\/\/www.artic.edu"}}