[ the death of procris, benjamin west. ]
— oil on canvas, 1770 (retouched in 1803).
the painting portrays procris dying upon being accidentally shot by her husband, cephalus, as he’d mistaken her for a wild animal during his hunt.
procris was a princess of athens, married to cephalus, and had a long history and much cause to believe her husband was unfaithful as he often left for hunting, especially when a servant told her of what they’d heard one time. the servant told her that they’d heard her husband call for either nephele, aura, or zephyr to come into his lap and relieve him of the heat. his words, though innocent enough -to ask for the mercy of wind after the strain of the hunt- were misinterpreted by the servant, and conveyed to the princess more romantically than they actually were.
hoping to catch her husband in his infidelity, she followed him into the forest one day, moving between the thickets. cephalus, unaware, thought the noise came from an animal lurking, and so he aimed at it, and surely enough struck it with the javelin that never missed, only to find moments later that it was his wife who he had struck.
even as she was dying, cephalus still comforted her that he was faithful, and explained what the servant had heard, and so she died peacefully in his arms.
the painting is now in the Art Institution of Chicago.
