The Feast of Achelous

The compositions derive from the eponymous work by Rubens and Jan Brueghel I in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, datable to circa 1615 (see W.A. Liedtke, Flemish Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1984, I, pp. 194-8; II, pl. XIV, figs. 74-5). The subject matter is taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses which relates that Theseus, returning from the Calydonian boar hunt, was stopped by heavy rains that flooded the river Achelous; at the invitation of the River God, he and his companions took shelter in the latter's dwelling and feasted there. The moments depicted are from book IX: 89-92: after Achelous has related how he lost one of his horns whilst duelling Hercules, and how it was subsequently turned into the mythical cornucopia, 'now a nymph dressed like Diana in a tucked-up tunic with long hair flowing over both her shoulders, came in, to serve us our dessert: the fruits of autumn, the exquisite fruits that we admired in the maple horn of plenty.'