Lot 51: JAN ERASMUS QUELLINUS, CALLED SEDERBOOM OR CORPUS ANTWERP 1634 - 1715 MECHELEN

signed and dated lower left: Quellinus JUS(?).F. A^o 1668/Antwerp

oil on canvas

82.5 by 55.5 cm.

PROPERTY FROM A BELGIAN PRIVATE COLLECTION

With Galerie de Heuvel, Brussels, by 1971.

Jan Erasmus Quellinus, the son and pupil of Erasmus Quellinus The Younger (1607-1678), traveled to Rome in 1657-59, where he became a member of the Bentvueghels. After his return to Antwerp in 1660, he was appointed Master in the local Guild of St. Luke and from 1666 to 1668 Jan Erasmus worked together with his father for the Augustines in Bruges (see J. de Maere & M. Wabbes, Illustrated Dictionary of 17th Century Flemish Painters, Brussels 1994, Text vol., p. 329). This work is dated 1668 and was made in Antwerp, according to the inscriptions. Its style and execution is very close to that of both Quellinus.

The story of Thetis dipping Achilles in the Styx, which is rarely depicted in 17th Century painting, is described by the non-Homeric ancient writers Hyginus and Statius in their books of myths. It tells the tale of Achilles, who was the son of Peleus, a normal man, and Thetis, a sea-nymph. Knowing the (mortal) destiny in store for her son, she tried to protect him by dipping him at birth in the waters of the river Styx. This made his body invulnerable except for the heel by which she held him. Achilles was eventually mortally wounded by an arrow in his heel from Paris.