Artemisia Prepares to Drink the Ashes of Her Husband, Mausolus

The painting describes the story of Artemisia, Mausolus’ wife, who was so loyal to her husband’s memory that she drank up his ashes. It depicts Artemisia seated on a stool by her bed, with a goblet in one hand and the funeral urn in the other. Behind the columns in the background, the architecture can be glimpsed, of the Mausoleum at Halikarnassos, which Artemisia commissioned. Werner probably knew the engraving by Crispijn van de Passe I or the engraving by Philips Gall which could have been used as models for the architecture of the Mausoleum. The painting is probably a replica after the today missing work by Joseph Werner, which the painter executed on parchment along with other miniatures for his friend Eustache Quinault before 1664.