Artwork
Landscape with Atalanta and Meleager pursuing the Calydonian boar (Ovid, Metamorphoses, VIII, 229-237)
Landscape with Atalanta and Meleager pursuing the Calydonian boar (Ovid, Metamorphoses, VIII, 229-237) is an oil painting by the Flemish Baroque painting artist Jacob Jordaens. It dates from 1635 and is held in the collection of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The work shows the figures of Atalanta and Meleager, along with a woman, in a forested landscape bearing down on the wild boar (Sus scrofa).
The painting illustrates a passage from Ovid's Metamorphoses (Book VIII, lines 229–237), depicting the legendary Calydonian boar hunt. According to the myth, the hunter Meleager joined forces with the virgin huntress Atalanta to pursue a monstrous boar sent by Artemis to ravage the kingdom of Calydon. The work shows the figures of Atalanta and Meleager, along with a woman, in a forested landscape bearing down on the wild boar (Sus scrofa).
The composition fuses mythological narrative with the conventions of landscape painting, situating the dramatic confrontation between hunters and beast within a dense natural setting. By rendering the violent episode as a landscape, the artist emphasizes the wilderness as both the arena of heroic action and the source of the divine punishment unleashed upon Calydon.
Technique & Style
Landscape with Atalanta and Meleager pursuing the Calydonian Boar is an oil painting on canvas completed by Jacob Jordaens in 1654. The work is classified as a mythological landscape painting, combining a narrative scene from Ovid’s Metamorphoses with a natural setting. Jordaens employed oil paint applied to a woven canvas support, a typical medium for Baroque-era Flemish painters. No specific details regarding the artist’s handling, surface condition, or stylistic nuances are provided in the sources.
History & Provenance
The painting is attributed to Jacob Jordaens and dated 1654, with an alternative inception year of 1635 also recorded for the work. It is executed in oil paint on canvas and depicts the mythological subject of Atalanta and Meleager hunting the Calydonian boar, drawn from Ovid's Metamorphoses. The provenance traces to ownership by Edmund Higginson, after which the painting entered the collection of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, where it is currently held. No further details of commission, intermediate ownership, or acquisition circumstances are documented in the available sources.
The work's dual dating of 1635 and 1654 suggests possible uncertainty regarding its exact moment of creation, though the 1654 date is the one carried by the primary cataloguing record for the painting.
The painting is held by the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels. It is also associated with the Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History, which is part of the same institutional complex. The work is currently located at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium.
Historical records indicate that the artwork was once owned by Edmund Higginson before entering the public collections. The piece entered the museum's holdings with an accession date range spanning from 1635 to 1654, reflecting the period of its creation and subsequent acquisition.
Overview
Jacob Jordaens completed the oil painting Landscape with Atalanta and Meleager pursuing the Calydonian boar in 1635. Executed in the Flemish Baroque style, the work presents a dense woodland where the hunters and the boar are caught in a moment of pursuit. The composition is lively, with figures and animal rendered in motion against a backdrop of trees.
Context
The work belongs to a period when Flemish artists were integrating Italianate dynamism with local naturalism. Jordaens’ depiction of a mythological hunt aligns with contemporary tastes for dramatic storytelling, while the forest setting showcases the period’s interest in detailed, almost scientific observation of nature.
Artist & collection
Artist
Jacques (Jacob) Jordaens (19 May 1593 – 18 October 1678) was a Flemish painter, draughtsman and a designer of tapestries and prints.
Museum
Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium
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Portrait of the artist with his family
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