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Aeneas Rescuing Anchises from Burning Troy

A work made of oil on panel.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of oil on panel.

Date:

1605/20

Artist:

Hendrick van Steenwijck the Younger (Flemish, 1580/82-1649)

About this artwork

Anchises, former lover of the goddess Aphrodite, is here shown as an old man asleep in bed. In the background at right, seemingly disconnected from the quiet bedchamber, his home city of Troy burns. In this rendition of the Classical story, Hendrick van Steenwijck drops the viewer into a moment of suspended action as Anchises’s demigod son, Trojan hero Aeneas, rushes in to save his father and carry him to safety. Throughout, Steenwijck emphasizes contrasts between father and son: age and youth, light and dark, peace and chaos. The crisp and detailed depiction of the room itself attests to Steenwijck’s expertise in painting architectural interiors, a specialty he shared with his artist wife, Susanna van Steenwijck.

Status

On View, Gallery 208

Department

Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist

Hendrick van Steenwijck, the Younger

Title

Aeneas Rescuing Anchises from Burning Troy

Place

Flanders (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1605–1620

Medium

Oil on panel

Dimensions

22.6 × 31.5 cm (8 7/8 × 12 3/8 in.); Framed: 29.6 × 38.5 × 6.1 cm (11 5/8 × 15 1/8 × 2 3/8 in.)

Credit Line

Wirt D. Walker Endowment

Reference Number

1962.817

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https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/88619/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

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