Richard Westall
British, 1765 - 1836
The Sword of Damocles
Dionysius, who had seized power in the
city of Syracuse, overheard the
young man Damocles envying his good fortune. "Very well," said the ruler.
"If you think my position is so enviable, you may change places with me
for a day."
As Damocles sat feasting in the palace, he happened to glance upward and
was horrified to see a sharp sword hanging above him by a single thread.
"Are you surprised?" said Dionysius. "I came to power by violence, and I
have many enemies. Every day that I rule this city, my life is in as much
danger as yours is at this moment."
If you are familiar with allusions to the "sword of Damocles," you may
know that to feel that the sword of Damocles is hanging over you is to
have a sense of anxiety, of impending doom.
The reference is to a story recounted by the Roman writer Cicero in the
first century B.C. Damocles was a courtier in Syracuse during the reign of
a powerful tyrant named Dionysius. Tired of hearing his young courtier
go on and on about how wonderful the life of a ruler must be, Dionysius
decided to teach Damocles a lesson. Damocles was treated to a lavish
banquet in which he was to experience what it really felt like to be a
ruler. In the midst of the festivities, he noticed a sword suspended
overhead by a single horsehair. Damocles' resulting anxiety was similar to
the worries and responsibilities that go along with the pleasures of a
ruler's position. With a better understanding of Dionysius' life,
Damocles became more content with his own role as an attendant to the
ruler.
In 1811 the English Neoclassical artist Richard Westall painted the
first of two versions representing this ancient story for an English
collector named Richard Payne Knight. The 1811 version was exhibited at
the Royal Academy, where it attracted the attention of another wealthy
patron of the arts, Thomas Hope. Hope commissioned a larger version of the
Damocles painting from Westall. It is this larger version from 1812
that hangs in the nineteenth-century gallery of the Ackland Art
Museum.
The Sword of Damocles is typical of the Neoclassical style. It was
painted in the same year that Lord Elgin brought the marble sculptures
from the Parthenon in Athens to England, and there was enthusiastic
interest in the classical world. Thomas Hope himself had an extensive
collection of classical vases and statuary, some of which Westall included
in his painting to make the setting seem more authentic. Several costumes
and hairstyles were also derived from works in Hope's collection. Beside
the choice of an ancient narrative and classical setting, Damocles shows
rather the static, stage-like composition characteristic of much
Neoclassical painting. The didactic element is also central to
Neoclassical concerns. These artists intended to instruct and improve
their viewers, and Westall's carefully contrived presentation of Damocles'
story was meant to teach his early nineteenth century contemporaries the
same lesson that the foolish young courtier needed so many centuries
earlier.