(Antwerp 1601–1678)
The Feast of Achelous,
oil on copper, 67.1 x 92.3 cm, framed

We are grateful to Klaus Ertz for confirming the authenticity of the present painting following its examination in the original (written communication).

The present painting was inspired by a joint work by Jan Brueghel the Elder and Peter Paul Rubens. Their Feast of Achelous, painted around 1615 (Metropolitan Museum, New York, inv. 45.141), is one of the most important works by the ‘Velvet’ Brueghel. In the present case, Jan the Younger did not copy his father, but, relying on his example, arrived at an autonomous pictorial solution. Nevertheless the central group of the New York painting indeed resembles that of the present composition. Jan the Younger created several versions of the painting. A variant resulting from a collaboration between him and Hendrick van Balen in 1625/32 is at the Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, Ohio. In the present painting, the figures are by the hand of a hitherto unidentified painter from the circle of Van Balen’s followers.

The subject is based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses (Lib. VIII, 547–573). The scene relates the encounter between the hero Theseus and the river god Achelous. When a flood blocked Theseus’s way to Athens, the river god invited him and his companions to his house. Among the nymphs serving food and drink during the banquet are probably also Castalia and Callirrhoe, his daughters. In the background appear Poseidon and Amphitrite in the company of the Nereids. All of the figures and the species of fish and seafood allude to Achelous and the element of water.

Additional picture
Jan Brueghel I and Peter Paul Rubens, The Feast of Achelous, New York, Metropolitan Museum

Additional picture
Jan Brueghel I, The Feast of Achelous, Dayton, Dayton Art Institute