The Death of Hyacinthos (1801)

Jean Broc (1771-1850) was a Neoclassic painter, yet another among the great multitude of painters trained by Jacques Louis David. The Death of Hyacinthos was his most famous work.

The subject of the painting is an episode from Greek myth about the romance of Hyacinth and the god Apollo. Hyacinth was killed by a discus thrown by Apollo himself, which was blown off course by Zephyr. The fact that this story was drawn from mythology made its homoerotic theme less disreputable than it would otherwise be.

This incident has been depicted in a number of paintings; a sampling is below.

 Giambattista Tiepolo (1752-53)

 Nicolas-Rene Jollain (1769)

Benjamin West (1771)