On-line gallery
- Reference number
- P01849
- Author
- Bril, Paul (Flemish); Rubens, Peter Paul (Flemish)
- Title
- Landscape with Psyche and Jupiter
- Chronology
- 1610
- Technique
- Support
- Measures
- 93 cm x 128 cm
- School
- Theme
- Shown
- No
- Entrance
- COLECCION REAL
- Procedence
- Royal Collection
Transformed into an eagle, the god
Jupiter helps young Psyche by
carrying a goblet in his beak and
filling it with water from the
River Styx. Venus had punished
Psyche by obliging her to do that
work after catch her when she
covertly watched Cupid, to whom she
was supposed to be married.
This work was painted by Bril in
Rome, without the figures and was
originally a landscape, like many
that painter sent to Flanders. Bril
made a modern composition with a
mid-horizon viewpoint, but with the
dramatic flair traditional to
Flemish landscape painting. He
combined this with the luminosity
and order that emerged at the
beginning of Roman landscape
painting, which was to become so
successful in the following
decades.
This painting belonged to Rubens,
who added the figures, changing the
painting's genre and making it into
a mythological scene. This work is
a clear example of Rubens custom of
modifying many paintings that were
already finished, both his own and
those of others.
Following Rubens' death, this work
was acquired by Felipe IV at the
auction of the artist's belongings.
