Perseus releases Andromeda

Perseus releases Andromeda from the sea-monster in one of antiquity's most popular rescue narratives, and Jan Brueghel's 1607 panel, now in the Rubenshuis in Antwerp, gives the myth an unusual emphasis: rather than centering on the heroic combat, Brueghel focuses on the landscape setting, making the human figures small within a wide, light-filled scene. The Rubenshuis — Rubens's own house and studio — held works that Rubens collected and in some cases co-authored with Brueghel, since the two were close friends and frequent collaborators. The 1607 date places this work in the period when their friendship was at its most productive, and Brueghel may have painted the figures in conversation with Rubens's compositional advice. The mythological subject allowed Brueghel to combine his landscape expertise with figure painting at a scale small enough for his cabinet technique.

Panel; the copper-like precision of Brueghel's touch is applied here to a small-scale mythological composition. Perseus on his winged horse Pegasus descends from above while Andromeda is chained to coastal rocks — the vertical descent of the hero contrasted with the horizontal stretch of the coastal landscape. Light is clear and Italianate, recalling his Roman training.