The Battle of the Amazons (Rubens)

The Battle of the Amazons
ArtistPeter Paul Rubens
Yearc. 1618
Mediumoil on wood
Dimensions121 cm × 165.5 cm (48 in × 65.2 in)
LocationAlte Pinakothek, Munich

The Battle of the Amazons or Amazonomachia is an oil on wood painting produced around 1618.[1] It shows an amazonomachy, i.e. a mythological battle between the ancient Greeks and the Amazons, a nation of all-female warriors.

The work by Rubens shows his huge admiration for Leonardo da Vinci's Battle of Anghiari, of which he owned a copy which he had touched up.[2] It is in the collection of the Alte Pinakothek in Munich.[3]

This painting was formerly in the collection of Cornelis van der Geest and can be seen in two paintings of his art gallery in the 1630s by Willem van Haecht.

  • Apelles painting Campaspe, 1630
    Apelles painting Campaspe, 1630
  • The Gallery of Cornelis van der Geest, 1628
    The Gallery of Cornelis van der Geest, 1628

Notes

  1. ^ Peter Paul Rubens, Battle between horsemen at the Netherlands Institute for Art History
  2. ^ M. Jaffé, Rubens è un italiano, in Rubens. Catalogo completo. Milano, Rizzoli, 1987, pp. 66–84. ISBN 881725701X.
  3. ^ [https://www.sammlung.pinakothek.de/de/artwork/2mxqZgML8b Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), Die Amazonenschlacht, um 1618] at the Alte Pinakothek site