Four Little Combats: Achilles and Hector
Etienne Delaune French
Closely related to Sebald Beham German
Not on view
Engraving, part of a set of four small, rectangular prints with black backgrounds, depicting combat scenes, likely influenced by German masters, particularly the Beham brothers. This print, first of the series, depicts a combat between Hector, on the center-left, and Achilles, on the right. The two heroes fight riding horses, surrounded by soldiers on foot. Delaune seems to have borrowed, in this print, from the Medieval tradition that highlighted Hector's belonging to the "nine knights," endowed with chivalrious qualities so highly appreciated in the Middle Ages, by representing him almost at the center of the print, while leaving Achilles on a second plane, and illustrating several barbarian men attacking him with uncivilized arms: a horse's jaw, a skull and a torch. This print is also closely related to a print of the same subject, of similar dimentsions, by Hans Sebald Beham.
