| Rubens chose a rarely depicted subject for his Discovery of the Infant Erichthonius, A cruel story precedes the erotic depiction of the daughters of Cecrops: Vulcan tried to rape the virgin Minerva who managed to escape, however. The god’s semen fell on the ground, impregnating the earth goddess Gaia, who bore the infant Erichthonius who had the form of a serpent. Minerva had to hide this little monster in a basket that she handed over for safekeeping to the daughters of the Athenian king Cecrops, Aglaurus, Herse and Pandrosus who disobeyed the goddess’s orders that the basket should not be opened and so uncovered its secret. Rubens followed Ovid, who leaves the daughters’ curiosity unpunished in his Metamorphoses, while other ancient authors report that the disobedient women went mad at their discovery and threw themselves off the Acropolis. Pictorial elements like the fountain figure of Daphne, the dolphins and the herm of Pan, the god of the fields, are to be read as symbols of fertility and sensuality, and allude to the tale just related and its consequences. For the beauty of Herse, which Ovid describes so eloquently, Rubens went back to Praxiteles’s famous statue of Aphrodite (40 BC). Although the original is lost, its form is familiar from countless copies. Its magic lies in the ambivalent expressiveness of her gestures, which make it uncertain whether the goddess is revealing herself or covering herself up. But Rubens also reused his own figures and facial types, which he often took from his head studies: the gracious face of Herse with the almond-shaped, slanting eyes is reminiscent of those of the bacchante in the painting Maid with Fruit Basket. |
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Oil on canvas
height 218 cm, width 317 cm
Inv.-No. GE111
Provenance: 1704 acquired by Prince Johann Adam Andreas I von Liechtenstein from the art dealer Marcus Forchoudt in Antwerp
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| Further works on display |
 | | Decius Mus relating his dream, 1616/1617 | |
| | The Interpretation of the Victim, 1616/1617 | |
| | Decius Mus preparing for Death, 1616/1617 | |
| | The Dismissal of the Lictors, 1616/1617 | |
| | The Death of Decius Mus, 1616/1617 | |
| | The Obsequies of Decius Mus, 1616/1617 | |
| | The Trophy, 1616/1617 | |
| | The Lamentation, c. 1612 | |
| | The Assumption of the Virgin, c. 1637 | |
| | Portrait of Jan Vermoelen, 1616 | |
| | Oil sketch of Mars and Rhea Silvia, c. 1616/1617 | |
| | Venus in Front of the Mirror, 1614/1615 | |
| | Portrait of Clara Serena Rubens, c. 1616 | |
| | Double Portrait of Albert and Nikolaus Rubens, c. 1626/1627 | |
| | Mars und Rhea Silvia, c. 1616/1617 | |
| | Christ Triumphant over Sin and Death, 1615/1622 | |
| | Henry IV seizes the Opportunity to conclude Piece, 1628 | |
| | Allegory of war, 1628 | |
| | The Victory of Henry IV at Coutras, 1628 | |
| | Apollo in the Chariot of the Sun, 1621/1625 | |
| | The Virgin adorned with flowers, 1609/1610 | |
| | The Conversion of St. Paul, 1601/1602 | |
| | St. Francis of Assisi before the Crucified Christ, 1625 | |
| | The Hunt of Meleager and Atalanta, 1628 (?) | |
| | Landscape with Milkmaids and Cows, 1616 | |
| | Perseus and Andromeda | |
| | St. Catherine in the Clouds, 1620/1621 | |
| | Diana´s Hunt, 1628 | |
| | Psyche taken up into Olympus, 1621 | |
| | Three Music-Making Angels,
on the reverse side of St Joachim, 1615/1620 | |
| | Four Music-Making Angels,
on the reverse side of St Anne, 1615/1620 | |
| | Portrait of a Monk (?) | |
| | Adoration of the Magi, 1609/1610 | |
| | The Visitation, 1611/1612 | |
| | The Consecration of Decius Mus, 1616/1617 | |
| | The Obsequies of Decius Mus | |
| | Ganymede, 1611/1612 | |
| | The Assumption of the Virgin, modello, 1637 | |
| | Samson and Delilah, c. 1610 | |
| | Satyr and Maid with Fruit Basket, 1615 | |
| | Portrait of Nicolaas Rockox, 1615 |
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| Related themes |
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