The Wedding of Peleus and Thetis
- 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.)
- Genre
- oil on panel
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago
Styles
Tags
oil paintings (visual works)paintingflemishpoetryVenuspaintMythologyRomanApplesoil on panelmarriages/weddingsplant materialtableclothnudeshelmetspanel paintingwarmenTableoil paint (paint)painting (image making)mythicalgods (deities)17th Centurypainting techniquescupidscelebrationsFruitchairswood (plant material)feastwomenweddingschairCompetitionorganic materialchildrenweaponsoil paintingArmorpanel (wood)mythological figureseuropean paintinggoddessesBeauty
About
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.
