Meleager and Atalanta
Jacques Jordaens (1593–1678)
c. 1618, extended c. 1660
this site may contain automatically translated textThe painting executed from this ‘modello’ is today in the Koninklijk Museum voor Schoone Kunsten, Antwerp. When King Oeneus of Calydon omitted to offer proper sacrifice to Diana, goddess of the hunt, she sent a wild boar to ravage his lands in revenge. Among the warriors who assembled to destroy the beast was Meleager, the king's son, his uncles and the huntress Atalanta. Felled by one of Atalanta's arrows, the boar is dealt the fatal blow by Meleager. His uncles try to prevent him presenting his lover Atalanta with the head of the boar as a trophy. In the ensuing fight Meleager slays his uncles, and then later dies himself after being cursed by his mother for killing her brothers. Jordaens chose the moment of confrontation between the young Meleager and his relatives as his main motif. The central group was added to by Jordaens himself almost 40 years after it was originally painted. The influence of Peter Paul Rubens is unmistakeable.
- Material/technique
- oil on panel
- Measurements
- 73 × 98 cm
- Acquisition
- acquired in 1981 by Prince Franz Josef II von und zu Liechtenstein
- Artists/makers/authors
- Jacques Jordaens
- Inventory number
- GE 108
- Provenance
- 22.03.1734 Sale from the estate of Jacques Jordaens, The Hague, no. 89; 1925 Sale Collection A. van Buren (Paris), Auction Amsterdam (A. Mak), 26-27, III.1925; 1950 De Coninck, Brussels; ca. 1950 A. de Heuvel, Brussels; Asscher, London; before 1968-1977 Wetzlar Dr, Hans; 09.07.1977 Sotheby's; until 1981 Galerie Nathan, acquired in 1981 by Prince Franz Josef II von und zu Liechtenstein from Galerie Nathan, Zurich.
- Place of origin
- Antwerp
- Iconography
- Meleager and Atalante
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