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Battle of the Amazons (Potsdam)

Battle of the Amazons (Potsdam)

Object type Painting
Genre Classical History
Date ca. 1598
Dimensions 97 x 124 cm
Support Panel
Medium Oil
Collaborators Peter Paul Rubens
Our attribution Jan Brueghel the Elder
Other authorities Ertz 2008-10, #551
Location Potsdam, Germany
Collection Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg
Accession numbers Bildergalerie, inv. #GKI 10021
Tags Battle, Death, Horse, Rubens, Nude, Soldiers, Classical, Landscape
Nicolai 1779, p.666
Waagen 1830, vol.2, p.227
Cologne 1977, pp. 181-182 as Otto van Veen
Bartoschek 1978, p. 11, no. 1, pl. 1 (as Otto van Veen with Jan Brueghel)
Eckardt 1980, p. 80, no. 74
Held 1983, pp. 21-250
Held 1987, pp. 9-22
Padua-Rome-Milan 1990, p.36
Von Simson 1996, pp.34-35
Essen/Vienna 1997-98, pp. 240, 242, 243, 246
Poeschel 2001, pp. 97, 107 (as Otto van Veen)
Renger/Denk 2002, p.350
Honig 2004
Vienna 2004, pp. 158-60, cat. #11
New York 2005, p.88
Jaffe/McGrath 2005, pp. 42-44, 47
Van Mulders in Brussels 2007, pp. 108-110 & fig. 1
Ertz 2008-10, cat. #551
Paris 1807, cat. #602
Cologne/Antwerp/Vienna 1992-93, cat. #44.1
London 2005, cat. #1
Los Angeles/The Hague 2006, cat. #1
1638 Antwerp This is or another version with Jan Snellinck
E.A. Honig
October 18, 2012

Description in Diego Duarte collection, Antwerp 1682: "No 62 Een stuck op paneel denslagh van de Amasoonen vol werekx van syn vroege manier. Het landtschap offte verschiet is geheel van den Fluweelen Bruegel, guld.100." (#62: a piece on panel the battle of the Amazons with many details in his [Rubens's] early manner. The landscape or distance is entirely by [Jan] Velvet Brueghel. 100 guilders)

The Potsdam picture has been slightly overpainted to make the figures more modest.

Has been attributed to Otto van Veen, clearly wrongly.
Of the two versions of this subject, the Potsdam one is probably the "prime," although that is a difficult concept when it comes to his studio methods.

Overall composition very loosely based on a print after Giulio Romano's Battle of Constantine at the Milvian Bridge (Vatican); engraved in the 16th century by the Monogrammist SK.