Jason swearing Eternal Affection to Medea

This is the first of the series of seven illustrations of the story of Jason made by Jean-François de Troy as sketches for cartoons for the Gobelins tapestry works in Paris. The cartoon made from this sketch no longer exists. The Gallery owns another sketch from the same series: The Capture of the Golden Fleece.According to the Roman poet Ovid’s Metamorphoses (Book VII), Jason was sent to steal the Golden Fleece from Colchis on the Black Sea. The Golden Fleece – the golden fleece of a winged ram – was a symbol of kingship, and Jason needed to capture it to take his rightful place on the throne. He was helped by the sorceress Medea, daughter of the king of Colchis, whom he married but later deserted.Here we see Jason and Medea deep in the woods at the altar of Hecate, a goddess associated with the moon and witchcraft. He grasps Medea’s hand and begs her to help him capture the Golden Fleece, promising to marry her in return. Cupid shoots an arrow which is directed by Hymen, god of marriage, towards Jason’s heart. Jason swears by the sacred rites of Hecate to be true and Medea, believing him, gives him magic herbs for his protection. Medea is depicted in an exotic costume appropriate for an Eastern princess. She takes a cutting from her basket and places it in Jason’s hand.The composition is structured upon a series of implied diagonals that follow the lines of Cupid’s arrow and the limbs of the other figures (Hecate and Medea’s right arms and Jason’s right leg) to cross on the magic herb Medea places in Jason’s hand. The receding diagonal lines of the plinth and the rustic fence in the painting’s system of perspective also meet at this point, drawing our eye to the focal point of the painting and emphasising its meaning.Very few changes were made to the composition between the sketch and the finished tapestry. A grandiose temple colonnade was added behind the statue of Hecate, and her pose was changed slightly to be more reminiscent of Diana, the primary goddess of the moon. De Troy added a dog at bottom left, perhaps a reference to the howling dogs said by some ancient authors to have announced Hecate’s approach, but more likely as a symbol of marital fidelity.The sketch is loosely painted in dynamic barely blended brushstrokes that emphasise the wildness of the setting and emotional drama of the moment. This rapidly painted oil sketch has a charming feeling of immediacy and spontaneity that is inevitably lost in the larger, highly finished cartoons and tapestries of the series. Six of the sketches, including this one, were in the de Troy sale in Paris in 1764 after his death.