The Ambassadors of Agamemnon in the tent of Achilles

Ingres's Ambassadors of Agamemnon of 1801, his Prix de Rome submission that won him the prize and sent him to Italy, depicts the scene from Homer's Iliad when Agamemnon's envoys arrive at Achilles's tent to plead for his return to battle. The academic competition demanded a demonstration of all the skills acquired during Ingres's training — figure drawing, historical costume research, compositional structure — and Ingres produced a work of extraordinary technical precocity that simultaneously announced his independence from Davidian convention. The cool clarity and linear precision already differ markedly from his teacher's heroic drama.

The frieze-like arrangement of muscular figures in a tent interior demonstrates Ingres's deep study of Greek vase painting and Flaxman's outline illustrations. The sharp linear clarity and anatomical precision mark his emerging Neo-classical style.