Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577–1640)
The Wedding of Peleus and Thetis
INV-5995
Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577–1640)1636
The Wedding of Peleus and Thetis
Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577–1640) →17th Centuryoil on panelflemish
Date
1636
Medium
Oil on panel
Dimensions
27 × 42.6 cm (10 5/8 × 16 3/4 in.); Framed: 42.2 × 57.8 × 6.4 cm (16 5/8 × 22 3/4 × 2 1/2 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection
In this oil sketch, the Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens illustrated a moment from the ancient Roman poem Metamorphoses for the hunting lodge of King Philip IV of Spain. In the middle of a wedding celebration, the goddess of discord, Eris, has thrown a golden apple into the feast to provoke jealousy. She succeeds in igniting a competition for the extraordinary fruit between Venus, goddess of beauty, who sits nude in the foreground; Juno, goddess of marriage, who wears a flowing veil at the center; and Minerva, goddess of war, who stands at the left in a helmet. Rubens humanized the gods through robust modeling of their bodies and facial expressions, a choice appropriate to the subject matter, a story of their pride and vanity.
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