The Death of Achilles
Copyright
Work in the public domain
Image: Courtauld
Image: Courtauld
Maker
1577-1640
Title
The Death of Achilles
Date of Production
1630-35
Medium
oil on panel
Dimensions
Height: 107.1 cm (panel)
Width: 109.2 cm (panel)
Width: 109.2 cm (panel)
Object Number
P.1978.PG.375
Mode of Acquisition
Count Antoine Seilern, bequest, 1978
Credit
Courtauld Gallery, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)
Label Text
This painting is the design for the final scene in a series of tapestries devoted to the life of the ancient Greek warrior Achilles (another design is on the other side of this room). Peter Paul Rubens’s assistants used it to create a full-scale version - roughly ten times larger than this work - to guide the tapestry weavers. Guided by the god Apollo, the Trojan prince Paris shoots an arrow into Achilles’s vulnerable heel, mortally wounding him. The animals in the foreground mirror the warrior’s fate: the noble eagle is killed by the wily fox.
Provenance
Dreyfus sale, G. Petit, Paris, 29 May 1889.Vicomte de Lyrot, Paris.Guy Stein, Paris,from whom acquired by Seilern in 1937; Princes Gate Bequest 1978
Exhibition History
National Gallery (to be displayed with permanent collection), National Gallery, London, 01/09/1997-01/06/1998
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