print
- Museum number
- 1891,0414.1199
- Title
- Series: History of Achilles
- Description
-
Achilles dipped into the River Styx; Thetis holding the child by it left foot and dipping it into a dark river while one of the Fates (Lachesis) stands behind her and lights the scene with a torch; Charon transporting the dead over the river in background; within a frame with sculptured terms of Hades and Persephone on either side, Cerberus in foreground, a bat-shaped cartouche above; after an oil-sketch by Peter Paul Rubens. 1679
Etching
- Production date
- 1679
- Dimensions
-
Height: 323 millimetres
-
Width: 264 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- This is one from a series of eight etchings after Rubens' designs for tapestries depicting the life of Achilles (from his early youth until his death). A series of oil sketches, modelli and large cartoons were made in order to prepare for the weaving of the tapestries; but it is after the oil sketches that Ertinger made this series of etchings. The BM holds a complete set.
This plate is after the oil sketch now in Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, inv.no.1760.
Lit.: E. Haverkamp Begemann, The Achilles Series, London, 1975, pp.51-54; F. Lammertse and A. Vergara, 'Peter Paul Rubens: The Achilles Series', exh.cat. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen and Museo Nacional del Prado, Rotterdam and Madrid, 2003-2004.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1891
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1891,0414.1199
