Édipo e a Esfinge

Ingres painted the core of this figure in Rome in 1808, a young winner of the Prix de Rome sending work back to Paris to prove he could handle the male nude. The academicians there were lukewarm. So the picture you see now is really two moments stitched together. Around 1825, back in demand, Ingres pulled the old canvas out and enlarged it, turning a bare figure study into a story. He added the human bones scattered in the shadow at the lower left, the leftovers of travelers the Sphinx had already devoured, and off to the right a small figure fleeing in panic. Oedipus himself leans in close and unbothered, one foot up on the rock, working out the riddle while the winged Sphinx watches from her ledge. The two dark eras of the painting sit side by side, and the seam barely shows.