(Siegen 1577–1640 Antwerp)
The Battle of the Amazons,
oil on canvas, 166 x 195 cm, framed

Provenance:
sale, Dorotheum, Vienna, 23 October 2018, lot 163 (sold for Private collection, United Kingdom)

This painting is a studio version of one of Rubens’s most impressive compositions: painted by Rubens when he was still young, the prime version shows the full impetuosity of his talent. The composition is typically Baroque, and the horse charging headlong into the fight was an image perfectly suited to the artist’s passionate temperament.

Rubens took the subject of The Battle of the Amazons from classical antiquity; it represents the battle between Theseus’s Athenians and the women-warriors of Telestris. A battle of this kind is briefly mentioned by Herodotus (4.110). The surging movement throws the opposing forces together; men, women and horses charge into combat, and the result is like an explosion within the picture space. The Amazons are hurled from their horses down into the river at the base of the picture, while Theseus’s horse rears up towards the upper margin, and the wounded go swirling into the background, drawn by the current of the River Thermodon. This is one of the most dazzling feats of Baroque painting.

The prime version of this composition is in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich (oil on panel, 121 x 166 cm). The present painting is a workshop version in enlarged format. Simon de Vos, but also Pauwels Casteels have been suggested as possible authors.