«Perdono io bramo, e sangue mi si chiede». The Shadow of the Lion between Alfieri and Stubbs

Abstract

The article compares Alfieri’s Agamemnon to Stubbs painting Lion Attacking a Horse, highlighting the conflict between passion and reason in the protagonist, Queen Clytemnestra. She is like the white horse in the painting: torn between the purity and morality embodied by her daughter Electra and the dark allure of her lover Aegisthus, a projection of her homicidal will. The drama concludes with the triumph of irrational forces and the premonition of future revenge by Orestes.