FEATURE
A Return to Splendor
Todd Herman
Chief Curator and Curator of European Art
For the past six months, a large oil painting
on wooden panel by the 17th century
Flemish artists Jan Breughel the Elder and
Hendrick van Balen has been undergoing
conservation treatment in Massachusetts.
The painting is back in Columbia and
looks better than ever.
The Artist
The painting has traditionally been ascribed
to Jan Breughel the Elder in collaboration
with Hendrick van Balen. There is no
signature, however the subject matter,
style and composition are consistent with
the numerous paintings produced by the
Flemish painter Jan Breughel the Elder
(1568-1625) and his son Jan Breughel the
Younger (1601-1678), who imitated his
father’s style so consistently that it is often
dif?cult to discern one from the other. The
elder Breughel ran a ?ourishing and active
4
columbiamuseum.org
workshop in Antwerp and was considered
one of the leading artists in the city, second
only to Peter Paul Rubens. In addition to
workshop assistants, Jan Breughel senior
often collaborated with other artists,
dividing the labor to better suit one’s
talents. Jan would paint the landscape
and still life elements while another artist
would paint the ?gures. In the case of
our painting, that artist was most likely
Hendrick van Balen. While collaborations
were common in 17th century Netherlands,
Jan Breughel engaged in this practice
more than most, counting among his
collaborators van Balen, Rubens, Joos de
Momper and David Teniers the Younger,
all of whom his son, Jan the Younger,
inherited as collaborators following his
father’s sudden death in 1625 of cholera.
The Subject
Following in the Mannerist tradition of
focusing on the more obscure aspects
of a narrative – and thus demonstrating
the humanist intellect of both artist and
patron – the story depicted here of the
Marriage of Thetis and Peleus is the precursor
to the better known (and more frequently
painted) story of the Judgment of Paris
(most notably by Rubens and Lucas
Cranach the Elder) and the epic battles
of the Trojan War. Thetis was a beautiful
sea nymph who caught the eye of Zeus.
Before Zeus could make of Thetis yet
another conquest, he was warned that
Thetis was destined to have a child who
would become more powerful than his
father. This was a prophecy Zeus knew
all too well since he had overthrown his
own father, Cronus. To prevent any god
from tempting fate, it was determined that
Thetis should be married to a mortal. The
chosen suitor was Peleus, son of Aeacus,
King of the Island of Aegina, and the two
had a son, the Greek hero Achilles.
The wedding was a time for great
celebration and all of the gods were