Ambassadors Sent by Agamemnon to Urge Achilles to Fight

French painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres painted this Prix de Rome winning work in 1801, depicting a scene from Homer's Iliad. Achilles refuses to listen to envoys sent by Agamemnon, who are trying to convince him back into the Trojan War. The topic assigned for that year's competition was warriors processing toward battle, but Ingres characteristically chose a moment of psychological drama over physical action.

The muscular envoys on the right follow the style taught by Jacques-Louis David, Ingres' teacher. But Achilles and Patroclus on the left appear more graceful, like figures from a delicate bas-relief. The work measures 155 by 110 centimeters in oil on canvas. Odysseus is shown in a red cloak derived from classical sculpture.

Winning the Prix de Rome entitled Ingres to four years at the French Academy in Rome, though shortage of state funds delayed his residence until 1806. The painting now hangs at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. A preparatory sketch exists at the Nationalmuseum of Sweden.