The Feast of Achelous

The composition is influenced by that of the eponymous work by Sir Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel I in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, datable to circa 1615. 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 moment depicted is 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.'