About this work

You see Aeneas rushing into a room to save his father, Anchises, who is asleep in bed. The scene is quiet, but the city of Troy burns in the background. This contrast between calm and chaos makes the painting interesting, as it highlights the difference between the old man and his strong son. You can learn more about this style by looking at the technique of chiaroscuro.

The story of this work

Overview

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…

Provenance

Walter John Montagu-Douglas-Scott, 8th duke of Buccleuch, Boughton House, Kettering, Northamptonshire, from at least 1912 to 1946 [1912 Boughton House inventory, no. 158]; sold Christie’s, London, 1 November 1946, lot 137, to Soukup for 30 guineas [according to annotated catalogue in Ryerson Library]. Charlotte Frank, London, to 1962; sold by Charlotte Frank to the Art Institute of Chicago December 1962.

Exhibition history

Patrick and Beatrice Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Leonaert Bramer (1596-1675), A Painter of the Night, December 3, 1992-February 28, 1993, cat. 65.

Read the full account in the museum source.