Art Institute of Chicago
The Wedding of Peleus and Thetis
Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577–1640)
- Date
- 1636
- Medium
- Oil on panel
- Culture
- Flanders
- Department
- Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Institution
- Art Institute of Chicago
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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- Object type
- AAT300033618
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