Jerusalem in Her Desolation
William Wetmore Story
American, 1819–1895

Details
Title
Jerusalem in Her Desolation
Artist/Maker
William Wetmore Story (American, 1819–1895)
Date
1879
Medium
Marble
Dimensions
67 x 38 x 42 1/2 inches
Credit
Gift of the West Foundation in honor of Gudmund Vigtel and Michael E. Shapiro
Accession #
2010.92
William Wetmore Story depicts the personification of Jerusalem among ruins based on a biblical passage from Lamentations in which the prophet Jeremiah writes of the Babylonians’ destruction of Jerusalem. Story used the Old Testament text as an opportunity to create the figure of a mournful woman caught amid dramatic events—a narrative subject that recurs in his renderings of Cleopatra and Medea nearby.
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