Lot 2030 Dα

Erasmus Quellinus' painting depicts Homer's tale of the weapons of the Greek hero Achilles. He had lent them to his friend Patroclus, who was killed and robbed of them by Hector. The death of Patroclus drove Achilles to war. His mother Thetis sought out Vulcan to have new armour and weapons made for her son. She was met by Charis, the wife of the god of fire. Vulcan began to forge a shield, a helmet, a cuirass ... (see F. Lammertse and A. Vergara, Peter Paul Rubens, The Life of Achilles, Rotterdam-Madrid, 2003/2004, cat. no. 6).
Jean-Pierre De Bruyn has identified this hitherto unpublished painting as a work by Erasmus Quellinus. He considers the depiction to be a ricordo, i.e. a record piece, and dates it to around 1635. The work reiterates a composition from the eight-part "Achilles series" by Peter Paul Rubens, which was created in collaboration with Quellinus. Eight oil sketches by Rubens and eight large models by Rubens and his collaborators Quellinus and/or Theodor van Thulden have survived from this series, but not the cartoons created afterwards. The latter served as direct models for large-format tapestries, the earliest series of which were woven in Brussels. The present ricordo repeats Rubens's oil sketch "Thetis Receiving Arms for Achilles" (oil on panel, 44.6 x 53.4 cm) in the Museum Boymans van Beuningen in Rotterdam (inv. no. 1760c), which also has comparable dimensions. The modello (oil on panel, 108.7 x 126.5 cm) executed afterwards by Rubens and Quellinus is housed in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Pau (inv. 417).