Atalanta and Meleager
Like many of Rubens’s other works, this painting illustrates a story from the Metamorphoses of the Roman poet Ovid (completed A.D. 8). Meleager has killed a monstrous boar and presents its head to Atalanta, with whom he has fallen in love. In the background is a snake-haired Fury—a reference to the subsequent feuding over the boar’s hide that will lead to Meleager’s death. Although a splendid example of Rubens’s depiction of substantial, fleshy bodies, 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.
Artwork Details
- Title: Atalanta and Meleager
- Artist: Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, Siegen 1577–1640 Antwerp)
- Date: ca. 1616
- Medium: Oil on wood
- Dimensions: 52 1/2 x 42 in. (133.4 x 106.7 cm)
- Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Fletcher Fund, 1944
- Object Number: 44.22
- Curatorial Department: European Paintings
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Multiple artists/makers
1635
Peter Paul Rubens
Franciscus van den Wijngaerde
17th century
Multiple artists/makers
17th century
Multiple artists/makers
1751
Peter Paul Rubens
Christoffel Jegher
before 1652
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