(1781-1858) Niobe Lamenting the Death of her Children, black chalk, brown wash, heightened with white, on brownish dyed paper, 45x 69,5 cm, mounted, unframed, (Sch)

Niobe was the wife of Amphion, the king of Theben. She boasted of her fourteen children with him. She wanted the people to worship her and not the Titan goddess Leto who had only two children: Apollo and Artemis. In revenge Leto commanded Artemis to kill Niobe’s daughters and Apoll to kill her sons with arrows. Niobe begged Leto to spare her youngest daughter, however, even this child was not spared and collapsed. Their father, Amphion, killed himself in pain.
The present composition combines and further develops the narrative in a chronological sequence: The killing of the children through Apollo and Artemis, Niobe’s attempt to rescue the youngest child and the suicide of the father. Even the altar with the statue of Hermes, which Amphion had erected, can be found in the composition. The dramatic narratives of the different plots in one sheet were to touch the onlooker dramatically before his realizing the content rationally. The stylistic elements are based on an artistic concept by Heinrich Füger, who used to teach them to his pupils at the Vienna Academy until 1806. Unfortunately this important era of Austrian art history has not yet been taken enough into account by Austrian scientists. Therefore unsigned sheets can only be attributed vaguely to certain artists. Besides Carl Agricola and Josef Abel, Anton Petter belonged to the more important pupils of Füger. Petter’s reception piece for membership at the Academy in 1814 was “The Death of Meleager”. It shows strong parallels to the present drawing. The strong influence of Füger with its dynamics and its broadly arranged figures and waving draperies is evident. Petter began his studies at the Academy in 1792 and received a stipend for a journey to Rome in 1808. In 1814 he became a member of the Academy and a professor of history painting in 1822.