# Amphion and Zethus Delivering their Mother Antiope from the Fury of Dirce and Lycus

- By: John Flaxman (English, 1755-1826)
- Date: 1789
- Medium: Pen and gray ink and brush and gray wash, over graphite, on gray laid paper, laid down on ivory wove paper
- Classification: Drawing and Watercolor
- Dimensions: Primary support: 16.1 × 29.2 cm (6 3/8 × 11 1/2 in.); Secondary support: 23.3 × 35.7 cm (9 3/16 × 14 1/16 in.)
- Culture: England
- Credit line: Gift of Dorothy Braude Edinburg to the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/217215)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/9340f30a-bcd6-710a-f006-d5d6a2766bb8/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

A British sculptor and draughtsman who created figural designs for famed ceramicist Josiah Wedgwood, John Flaxman had a taste for the Neoclassical, which led him to Rome in 1787. While in the Eternal City, Flaxman produced this study for a nine-by-five-foot bas-relief using several references from ancient Roman sculpture. The drawing exhibits Flaxman’s signature elegance in figural outlines. However, Flaxman felt the project was inadequate to establish his reputation as a sculptor, so he abandoned it and later reused two of the figures from this drawing in a different context.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0