[1] As Cabanel's painting career developed, he expanded his style to preserve the French Academy while appealing to his personal interests in literature, often depicting new perspectives in contradiction with tradition.

The painting depicts Phaedra stretched out on her side in a lavishly decorated bed, one arm at supporting her head and one hanging off the edge fingering the expensive drapery.

On the floor sits an expensive fur rug, its golden tones reminiscent of the shield, helmet, and sword tied to a column before Phaedra's bed.

This also gives the work a greater sense of depth, as the thin layers of paint provide striking visual effects to the contrasting dark and light colors in the scene.

[1] Cabanel spent time at the school as a student and teacher, where he was exposed to classical works of literature, as well as important French writers of the past centuries.

[4] Sylvain Amic suggests that, because of the contemporary attention to the play, Cabanel was likely trying to revive an interest in antiquity among the rapidly progressing art that rejected traditional subjects.

This excerpt also places Cabanel's Phaedra in a weakened and emotional moment, showing the artist's innovation in contrast to the often heroic and instructive works of the Academy.

[7] The final work was destroyed, but his cartoons show influences of Michelangelo's heroic and thoughtful figures of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, Raphael's introspective philosophers and mathematicians of the School of Athens, and the theatrical compositions and movement of Annibale Carracci's Farnese Gallery decorations.

These elements can all be seen in Phaedra in the dark background illuminating her pale body, the luscious fabrics that shine and ripple, and the opulent luxury of her bedchamber's adornments.

Cabanel reached the height of his popularity when he showed the Birth of Venus, receiving critical acclaim for its innovation and beauty, recognizable even by Napoleon III who purchased the work.

Academic critics thought Cabanel's portrayal of the classical Phaedra in a weak state was unbefitting, and his composition boring, especially in contrast to the luxurious setting.

Cabanel's Phaedra can be seen as a culmination of the artist's practices and experiences melding together as a retrospective of his past, while struggling to retain a foothold in a fast-pace art world.

Now, the richness of painting can be appreciated as it appears from an expert hand, finding the beauty in the “unpleasant” and emotion in the mundane, asserting, finally, a “proper place.”