The Wedding of Peleus and Thetis

Museum record 59956: The Wedding of Peleus and Thetis by Peter Paul Rubens. A verified entry point for discovery.

What to notice

For The Wedding of Peleus and Thetis (record 59956), start with modern, expressive, atmospheric. Compare the focal subject, edge treatment, and atmosphere before moving on.

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In this oil sketch, the Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens illustrated a moment from the ancient Roman poem Metamorphoses for the hunting lodge of King Philip IV of Spain. In the middle of a wedding celebration, the goddess of discord, Eris, has thrown a golden apple into the feast to provoke jealousy. She succeeds in igniting a competition for the extraordinary fruit between Venus, goddess of beauty, who sits nude in the foreground; Juno, goddess of marriage, who wears a flowing veil at the center; and Mi…