Aeneas Carrying Anchises from the Burning Troy (Amsterdam)
Object type | Painting |
Genre | Classical Mythology |
Date | 1593 |
Dimensions | 25.5 x 34.3 cm |
Support | Copper |
Medium | Oil |
Signature | BRUEGHEL 1593 |
Our attribution | Jan Brueghel the Elder |
Other authorities | Ertz 2008-10, #325 |
Location/Most Recent Sale | Amsterdam, Salomon Lilian Gallery, 2005 |
Tags | Bridge, City, Fire, Burghers, Soldiers, Classical, History, Mythological, Boat |
This seems to be the prime version of a composition of which there are several further copies, eg the painting sold Christies London July 7 2004, and the version in Munich (ertz 1979 #26). It is also possible that the Munich version is the prime one. All are on copper plates of roughly the same size but only this one is signed and dated. It was sold as having a pendant of Aeneas and Sibyl in the Underworld, a work that seems to be later and of slightly less good quality. Perhaps they were put together later as being thematically connected.
Many actual sites from Rome can be identified in "Troy" here. Although I have not seen this picture, I suggest that its date might actually read 1595 because the drawing on which it is based is very clearly dated 1594. That drawing is View of the Bridge and Castel Sant' Angelo (pen and brown ink, 179 x 269); Darmstadt, Hessisches Landesmuseum, inv. #AE 397. On this drawing see Winner 1975, 93-94.