The Finding of Erichthonius

The Finding of Erichthonius (c. 1632-33) at the Allen Memorial Art Museum belongs to a mythological subject that Rubens treated several times across his career — the story from Ovid and Apollodorus where the three daughters of the Athenian king Cecrops open a basket entrusted to them by Athena, discovering the infant Erichthonius (son of Hephaestus and the earth goddess Gaia) guarded by serpents. The three daughters' reactions — Aglauros with curiosity, Herse with fascination, Pandrosos with horror — gave Rubens the opportunity to display three contrasting female figures in different states of psychological agitation, a compositional challenge he relished. The Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College holds this canvas as a significant example of Rubens's late mythological production in an American university art museum, representing the growing importance of university collections for preserving and displaying major European works that private collectors had assembled and institutions later acquired.

The composition groups three female nudes around the discovered infant, their varied poses creating a dynamic yet balanced arrangement. Rubens' warm, luminous flesh painting and fluid brushwork demonstrate his late style at its most sensuous.

This late mythological painting from 1633 shows Rubens's mature technique at its most fluid. The painting has been conserved with attention to the subtle glazes that create the luminous flesh tones. The canvas is in stable condition after relining.