The Rape of Proserpine
Van Aachen, Hans1589
Brukenthal National Museum
Sibiu, Romania
The painting presents the mythological story of Proserpine (Greek: Persephone), the goddess, who was abducted by Pluto, ruler of the Underworld (Greek: Hades) to be his spouse. Ceres (goddess of crops and fields), Proserpine’s mother, pleaded with Pluto and obtained a compromise, whereby Proserpine was to spend autumn and winter in the Underworld, with Hades, but would be allowed to return to the earth, in spring and summer. The myth is fundamentally a metaphor, explaining the natural cycle of vegetable life, from the planting of seeds, germination etc. to the reaping of the crops and the seeming death of plants in winter.
The painting is signed HVA, on the wheel of Pluto’s chariot, and is dated 1589.
©Dana Roxana Hrib, European Art Gallery Guidebook, Second edition, Sibiu 2011.
- Title: The Rape of Proserpine
- Creator: Van Aachen, Hans
- Date: 1589
- artist: HANS VON AACHEN
- Physical Dimensions: w150 x h109 cm (without frame)
- Artist Biography: A Mannerist German painter, born in Cologne, Hans von Aachen took the birthplace of his father for a surname. He was probably a member of the painters’ guild of Cologne, before he left for Italy, in 1574. As a member of the northern European Diaspora, he spent some time in Venice and Rome, before he went to France and painted a number of portraits there. By the time he returned to Germany, in 1587, his reputation was well established, on the strength of his historical paintings, as well as the delicately psychological portraits that he produced. In the year 1592, Emperor Rudolf II appointed him imperial painter, in absentia. Four years later, he moved to Prague and was active as a painter, art dealer and diplomat; his clients included many rich collectors of Munich and Augsburg. ©Dana Roxana Hrib, European Art Gallery Guidebook, Second edition, Sibiu 2011.
- Provenance: Brukenthal National Museum
- Type: Painting
- Medium: oil on canvas
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