The Wrath of Achilles

King Agamemnon must give back his beloved Chryseis to her father, the priest of Apollo, in order to stop the plague. In exchange for his beloved, he took Briseis, the beloved of Achilles, in her place. This scene is the fourth in a series of eight oil sketches. In this depiction of the episode, the enraged Achilles is shown drawing his sword while being restrained by his hair by Minerva. Agamemnon is rising from his throne and is being restrained by his arm by the wise Nestor. After this episode, Achilles refused to take any further part in the war against Troy. Only after the death of his friend Patroclus did Achilles become reconciled with Agamemnon and return to the Greek army. This oil sketch is the fourth in a series of eight oil sketches which Rubens made about the life of Achilles in preparation for a series of tapestries. Rubens designed four series of tapestries, and all four were executed. That was an expensive and time-consuming procedure in which oil sketches like these were just the first step. They were followed by larger painted models, which preceded full-size cartoons for the weaver which were ten times the size of the initial sketches and were typically painted by assistants. It is hard to imagine that a project of that kind could be undertaken without a patron, but in three of the four cases we do not know who this was. The last series was made around 1630, and all eight of sketches have survived. Seven are in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. They chronicle the life of the Greek hero Achilles from his baptism in the Stynx, one of the legendary rivers of the underworld. That baptism would have made him immortal if his mother had not held him by the heel while immersing him. That proverbial unprotected Achilles' heel proved fatal, as can be seen in the eighth and last panel.