The Wedding of Peleus and Thetis

mythological

The Haarlem government commissioned this painting to decorate a guesthouse for the Orange family and other dignitaries. The painting's reference to the beginnings of the Trojan War presented an impressive reminder that even trivial discord causes devastating wars. This was a topical message in Haarlem, which had suffered debilitating defeat in a Spanish siege of 1573.

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About the Artist

Cornelis Van Haarlem

1562 – 1638

Dutch painter, also known as Cornelis Cornelisz, who ranks with Hendrik Goltzius and Karel van Mander as one of the leading representatives of Mannerism in the Netherlands. The three artists founded the Haarlem Academy, which was a school for drawing from the nude. He is best known for his large biblical and historical pictures packed with athletic, life-size Italianate nudes in wrenched and sharply foreshortened positions. But he also did a few forceful portraits of individuals and groups which show that he was an important forerunner of Frans Hals. Both facets of his work can best be seen in the Frans Halsmuseum in Haarlem, where he spent most of his life, after traveling in France and the Netherlands, but not, apparently, in Italy.

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