Achilles Dipped into the River Styx
Artist
Peter Paul Rubens and Workshop
(Flemish, 1577 - 1640)
Datec. 1630-1635
CultureFlemish
MediumOil on panel
ClassificationPaintings
ProvenanceDaniël Fourment [d. June 1643], Antwerp, until June 1643; by inheritance to his son, Peter Fourment, Antwerp, and his partner, Peter van Hecke the Younger, until April 28, 1653; sold to merchant Hendrick Lanaerts, Antwerp, and weavers Gerard van der Strecken and Jan van Leefdael, Brussels, April 28, 1653; one half of Van Leefdael’s share passed by inheritance to his son Willem van Leefdael, who in 1660 sold half of his share to his sister Maria van Leefdael and her husband Jan Karel van Deynum. By 1737, in the collection of Juan de Dios Gómez de Silva and María Teresa de los Ríos Zapata, Duke and Duchess of Pastrana and Infantado, Chamartín Palace, Madrid. By inheritance to the Dukes of Pastrana and Infantado. Upon the death of Pedro Alcèntara de Toledo, Thirteenth Duke of Pastrana and Infantado, in 1841, by inheritance to his illegitimate son, the Duke of Pastrana [d. 1887], Madrid; donated by his wife, the Duchess of Pastrana, to the Comunidad de las Religiosas del Sagrada Corazón de Jesus, Madrid, 1887 or 1888. Bought by Émile Pacully, Paris; sold to Georges Petit, Paris, May 4, 1903 (no. 28, pl. XXVI); John E. Stillwell sale, Anderson Galleries, New York, December 1-3, 1927 (no. 224, repr.); purchased by Kleinberger Galleries for William R. Hearst, New York; returned by Hearst to Kleinberger, 1929, in payment for another painting; purchased from Kleinberger by John Ringling, February 15, 1930; bequest to The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, 1936.
Credit LineBequest of John Ringling, 1936
Object numberSN221
Thetis dips her infant son Achilles into the river Styx as protection against the early death prophesized for him. Only the heel by which she holds him remains vulnerable and is where an arrow will strike and kill this future hero of the Trojan War. This scene is the first in a series of eight works on the life of Achilles that was made into tapestries. Following a bozzetto, or first sketch, this modello would be the master's autograph model that studio assistants would use to make full-scale painted cartoons from which the tapestries would then be made.
On View
Not on viewFrame: 55 x 47 1/4 in. (139.7 x 120 cm)
