Flemish school; 17th century

Flemish school; mid-seventeenth century. Old attribution to PETER PAUL RUBENS, (Siegen, Germany, 1577 - Antwerp, Belgium, 1640).
"The Finding of Erictonius".
Oil on canvas. Relined from the 19th century.
Presents restorations.
It has labels of provenance.
Measurements: 50 x 61 cm; 66 x 78 cm (frame).
The delicacy of the brushstroke that in many cases remains open, almost abstract as for example in the hair of the woman who is standing in the center of the scene, added to the treatment of the flesh tones, generous in its volume, and the golden effect of the light on it, are characteristics close to the painting of the master Rubens, for this reason it is not surprising that the work had an old attribution to that painter. The painting follows the model of The Finding of Erictonius by Peter Paul Rubens, currently in the collection of the Allen Memorial Art Museum in Ohio. The piece is part of the rich Flemish Baroque tradition of classical mythology, reinterpreted with great theatricality and sensuality. This type of painting, a direct heir to the style of Rubens, presents a scene charged with dynamism, color and narrative tension, distinctive characteristics of his art, and takes up a fascinating episode from Greek mythology: the moment when the daughters of Cecrops, mythical king of Athens, discover the child Ericthonius hidden in a chest.According to legend, the god Hephaestus, in his failed attempt to possess Athena, dropped his semen on the earth, from which Ericthonius was born, a semi-human creature with serpentine characteristics. Athena, wishing to conceal this unusual birth, entrusted the child to the daughters of Cecrops with the order not to open the chest. However, driven by curiosity or by madness sent by the gods, the young women disobey and open the container, being horrified at the sight of the serpent-child.

In the painting that follows this tradition, one can observe the same scenographic composition and the intensive use of light and color to guide the viewer's gaze. The female figures are depicted in the classic Rubenesque type: opulent bodies, luminous skin, dramatic gestures and fluttering garments that reveal more than they conceal, all set against a vaguely classical landscape or architectural background that situates the action in an idealized mythological world. The child Erictonio appears in the center or at the bottom of the chest.

The scene is depicted in a setting where architecture and landscape merge into one, as in some areas the boundaries are blurred in favor of a fluid, delicate and sumptuous atmosphere.
Peter Paul Rubens was a painter of the Flemish school who, however, competed on equal terms with contemporary Italian artists, and enjoyed a very important international importance, since his influence was also key in other schools, as is the case of the transition to full baroque in Spain. Although born in Westphalia, Rubens grew up in Antwerp, where his family originated.Rubens had three teachers, the first being Tobias Verhaecht, a painter of precise and meticulous technique who had traveled to Italy, and who instilled in the young painter the first artistic rudiments. It is also possible that Rubens traveled to Italy influenced by this first master. The second was Adam van Noort, a Romanist painter also oriented towards the Italian influence, with a language still Mannerist, and who must also have influenced the young man to visit Italy. Finally, his third teacher was Otto van Veen, the most outstanding and the last of them. After his training, Rubens joined the Antwerp painters' guild in 1598. Only two years later he made a trip to Italy, where he remained between 1600 and 1608, and in 1609 he returned to the Netherlands, in the service of the governors of Flanders, Archduke Albert and the Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia. In addition to being a chamber painter, Rubens will exercise diplomatic tasks for the court that will take him to visit Spain, London and Paris. In 1609 he married Isabel Brant in Antwerp and organized his workshop, hiring excellent collaborators, with whom he worked side by side, many of them being specialist painters (Frans Snyders, Jan Brueghel de Velours...). He will also take on disciples and create an excellent workshop of engravers, who will work from drawings in his own hand, and under his supervision.