Achilles and the Daughters of Lycomedes

Although the present painting has in the past always been attributed to Sir Peter Paul Rubens, the composition derives from the oil sketch for a tapestry by Rubens, oil on panel (61.5 x 45.5 cm.), now in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. It follows exactly Rubens' composition, but without the enframement. The tapestry was executed in the early 1630s, but the sketch remained in Antwerp for most of the century. The present painting likely dates from the middle of the 17th century. Haverkamp Begemann mentions in his The Achilles series, Brussels, 1985, six other painted copies.