Atalanta and Meleager

Rubens, Peter Paul (1577-1640)


Item type:
painting
Date of creation:
1615-1617
Height:
133.4 cm  (52 1/2 in.)
Width:
106.7 cm  (42 in.)
Technique / Medium:
oil on wood

    Item location

  • Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)
    [Museum inv. no.: 44.22]

Description

This painting illustrates a story from the Metamorphoses of Ovid. Meleager has killed the wild boar that ravaged the countryside and presented the head to the virgin Atalanta, with whom he has fallen in love. In the background is a Fury—a reference to the subsequent events leading up to Meleager's death. Behind Atlanta is a male figure blowing coiled horn.
Although a splendid example of Rubens's work around 1615–17, the picture is not in uniformly good condition. Parts are abraded and the drapery over the right shoulder of Meleager has been reconstructed on the basis of a workshop copy in the Gemäldegalerie, Kassel.

Iconclass

94N323
Meleager gives the head of the boar to Atalanta

Instruments [MIMO Code] (notes)

Hunting horn [4138]

RIdIM images


Image URLs

image link 1

RIdIM record id

3806