(Siegen 1577–1640 Antwerp)
Hero and Leander,
oil on canvas, 84 x 111 cm, framed

Provenance:
sale, Sotheby’s Olympia, London, 28 October 2004, lot 35 (as after Sir Peter Paul Rubens, 18th century, with incorrect measurements);
sale, Bonhams, Oxford, 14 April 2015, lot 388 (as after Sir Peter Paul Rubens, 18th Century, with incorrect measurements);
Private collection, Germany

Exhibited:
Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Becoming Famous. Peter Paul Rubens, 22 October 2021 – 20 February 2022, cat. no. 33. (as Workshop of Peter Paul Rubens (?));
Genoa, Palazzo Ducale, Appartamento del Doge, Rubens a Genova, 6 October 2022 – 22 January 2023 (as Workshop of Peter Paul Rubens (?))

Literature:
V. Korbei, Rubens und die Antike in: Becoming Famous. Peter Paul Rubens, exhibition catalogue, Dresden 2021, pp. 150–152, no. 33, illustrated on pp. 151 (as Workshop of Peter Paul Rubens (?) circa 1609–1618);
N. Büttner, A. Orlando, Rubens a Genova, exhibition catalogue, Milan 2022, pp. 336–339, 385, no. 54, illustrated (as Workshop of Peter Paul Rubens (?));
G. Martin, Leander and Hero in: E. McGrath, B. Schepers and B. Vanoppen (eds.), Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, an illustrated catalogue raisonné of the work of Peter Paul Rubens based on the material assembled by the late Ludwig Burchard (1886–1960) in twenty-nine parts, part 11, Mythological subjects, vol. 1, Hercules to Olympus, London/Turnhout 2022, p. 293, mentioned under no. 73-2, as copy no. 7

The present dynamic and forceful painting depicts the story of two of the most renowned lovers from ancient mythology, Hero and Leander, as described by the Greek poet Musaeus of Athens and later re-written by Ovid in his Heroides. According to the legend, the young Leander of Abybos would swim nightly the strait to Sestos where his lover, Hero, a priestess of Aphrodite, would hold a burning torch providing Leander guidance. One stormy night the fire was extinguished and the waters became so wild and fierce that Leander drowned. Maddened with grief Hero threw herself off the tower to join him in death in the Hellespont waters below.

The centre of the present composition is dominated by the presence of Leander’s lifeless body being accompanied by a group of mourning Nereids swaying in the churning waves. Additional intensity is given to the story through the combining of consecutive events to produce one highly dramatic scene, notably the inclusion of Hero plunging to her death in the wild waters below. The nocturnal scene is illuminated by a few rays of sunlight breaking through the dense, dark clouds casting light on the tragic story that is unfolding. The composition clearly shows traces of Rubens’ stay in Italy, for the central Nereid’s left thigh can relate to that of Michelangelo’s much-admired sculpture of Night, from the tomb of Giuliano di Lorenzo de’ Medici (Florence, Basilica di San Lorenzo).

As Nils Büttner describes in the catalogue entry of the present painting (see op. cit. Büttner, 2022, p. 338) the canvas is possibly a workshop version and could well have been produced immediately after Rubens’ return from Italy. Büttner therefore dates the painting to sometime between 1609–18. Rubens created the now lost original version during his stay in Italy, though little is known about who commissioned the work and it may, in fact, have been painted for the free market. Nonetheless, the composition was much celebrated upon its inception, for it was honoured in a sonnet by Giovanni Battista Marino, in his La Galeria del Cav. Marino distinta in Pitture e Sculture under the title ‘Leandro morto trà le braccia delle Nereidi: di Pietro Paolo Rubens’. The recognition of the original painting’s significance is reflected in the several replicas and copies that exist – many of which are attributed to Rubens’ workshop – and are conserved in distinguished international museums, including versions in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden (inv. no. Gal. no. 1002) and the Yale University Art Gallery (inv. no. 1962.25), amongst others.