Artemisia drinking the Ashes of Mausolus 

Donato Creti painted 'Artemisia drinking the Ashes of Mausolus' with oils on canvas. The scene is constructed around a strong diagonal line of service that culminates in a moment of symbolic communion. Creti's Artemisia is composed of layered textures and a stark chromatic scale. The fabrics vary from the thick impasto of the red velvet drapery at the base, up to the matte opacity of the shadowed backdrop. This surface articulation highlights the painting’s formal structure and subtly evokes Artemisia’s emotional complexity. The subject, taken from ancient history, features Artemisia II of Caria, known for her extreme grief after the death of her husband, Mausolus. Artemisia's act of drinking his ashes speaks to early modern interests in the instability of meaning when faced with powerful human drives. The painting’s composition guides us to think about the interplay of love, memory, and mourning as Artemisia destabilizes conventional funerary practices through ritualized consumption.