Achilles among the Daughters of Lycomedes, oil on canvas, 88 x 116 cm, framed

Provenance:
European private collection.

Literature:
J.-P. de Bruyn, Erasmus II Quellinus (1607–1678), Freren 1988, p. 134, no. 55;
Dürer Van Dyck Warhol – Das inszenierte Porträt seit 1300, exh. cat., Petersberg 2006, pp. 100/1.

Exhibited:
“Dürer Van Dyck Warhol – Das inszenierte Porträt seit 1300, Überlingen 2006, no. II.4.

In the catalogue that accompanied the exhibition in Überlingen, the present painting is commented upon as follows: “The smart Achilles, aware of the fact that he would live a short, yet glorious life, may be understood as the ancient mythological prototype of modern stardom. According to notions prevalent in the early modern age, Achilles, unlike Hector, the latter’s wartime enemy, ranked among the ‘viri illustris’, but not among the ‘Nine Worthies’.

In this picture, Achilles, disguised as a girl, is detected by the artful Odysseus. The painting translates the ancient myth into the courtly ambience of the 17th Century. The picture almost appears like a theatrical staging, with actors in exquisite costumes appearing against the backdrop of impressive sets. The work stands out for its narrative complexity, employing the refinement of Baroque rhetoric as was called for by contemporary art theory. Quellinus’s interpretation of the episode evidently relies on the Daughters of Lycomedes from the Life of Achilles, an Antwerp tapestry cycle based on designs by Peter Paul Rubens (c. 1630–35).

Quellinus treated the subject of Achilles among the Daughters of Lycomedes several times. Further autograph versions of this composition are preserved in the Collections of the Princes of Liechtenstein (signed and dated 1643, considerably trimmed, 77 x 107 cm) and in the Szépmuvészeti Museum in Budapest (unsigned and undated, 114 x 164 cm). The latter variant was only discovered in 2000.

Erasmus Quellinus II was the son of the sculptor Erasmus Quellinus I and a painter of portraits, religious and allegorical scenes, and historical subjects. Having probably been trained by his father, he became a master in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in 1633/34. Thereafter Quellinus collaborated with Peter Paul Rubens and under his direction, Quellinus participated in the preparations of the “Pompa Introitus”, the triumphal entry of Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand in Antwerp. Between 1636 and 1638, he was involved in the decoration of the Torre de la Parada, a royal hunting lodge near Madrid. After Rubens’ death, Quellinus succeeded him as the official painter of the town of Antwerp. He also took over Rubens’ position as artistic director of the Plantin printing house. He received commissions from the Thurn and Taxis family and the cities of Ghent and Amsterdam (for whose town hall, today’s Royal Palace, he decorated the ceiling in the Chamber of Moses). Quellinus frequently worked together with flower painters as Daniel Seghers, Johan Philip van Thielen, Joris van Son, and Jan Peter Brueghel, painting figures, frequently en grisaille. He also often collaborated with his son, Jan Erasmus Quellinus. An encyclopaedia on Flemish painters of the 17th century subsumes as follows: “Stylistically, he combined a Rubensian influence with that of N. Poussin, thereby forging an individual manner. He was at his best in the late 1650s. At the end of his life he returned to a more purely Rubensian style...”. Today Erasmus Quellinus II is considered one of the most significant 17th Century Flemish painters besides Peter Paul Rubens.