Fotoreproductie van een schilderij door Félix Barrias, voorstellende Cornelius Gallus wenend om zijn geliefde Lycoris, scène uit Virgilius' Bucolica before 1858

This is a photographic reproduction of a painting by Félix Barrias, depicting Cornelius Gallus mourning his beloved Lycoris, a scene from Virgil's Bucolics. The image invites us to consider the role of classical themes in 19th-century art, especially in academic painting in France. Barrias was part of an artistic establishment that looked to the ancient world for models of beauty and virtue. The artist draws on the literary canon of Virgil, an author central to the education of cultivated people in the 19th century. This artwork can be seen as part of a broader trend in European art and literature to engage with classical antiquity, not merely as a source of aesthetic inspiration, but as a means of commenting on contemporary social and political issues. To fully understand the image, we can turn to archival sources, exhibition reviews, and other period documents to place the painting in its original context. By doing so, we are better able to understand the social conditions that shaped the artistic production of its time.