The Fire of Troy

Private collection

historical

In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Greeks after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and has been narrated through many works of Greek literature, most notably through Homer's Iliad. In the present painting van Valckenborch has depicted the carnage of the attack as the Greeks slaughter the fleeing Trojans and torch the city.

About the Artist

Frederik van Valckenborch

1566 – 1623

Valckenborch (or Valkenborch, or Valkenborgh), family of Netherlandish landscape and genre painters. The family was originally from Leuven but was one of many families who, for political or religious reasons, left the Spanish-occupied southern Netherlands and settled in the more tolerant German imperial cities, particularly Frankfurt am Main, where they often strongly influenced artistic developments. Of the 14 known painters in the family, only Marten van Valckenborch I, his brother Lucas van Valckenborch I and Marten's sons Frederik van Valckenborch and Gillis (Egidius) van Valckenborch have so far been identified as significant from surviving works. Frederik van Valckenborch was a painter and draughtsman, son of Marten van Valckenborch I. He must have received his first training in Antwerp, possibly from his father, although his earliest works, two drawings - the Deluge (1588; London, British Museum) and Moses Drawing Water from the Rocks (1589; Brunswick, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum) - contain figures of a completely different type from Marten's. This has prompted the theory that, whereas he studied landscape painting with his father, he must also have worked with an Antwerp figure painter. Jacob de Backer certainly influenced the young master strongly, but it would be premature to assume that Frederik was his pupil.

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