Sic Victoria Victis

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Artist/Maker Gaspard Duchange (French, 1662 - 1757)

Artist/Makerafter Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577 - 1640)

Datec. 1700

MediumEngraving

DimensionsComposition: 12 7/16 × 17 1/4 in. (31.6 × 43.8 cm) Sheet (trimmed to edges of plate): 14 9/16 × 18 3/8 in. (37 × 46.7 cm)

Credit LinePurchase

Object number1995.59

Not on view

DescriptionPeter Paul Rubens was the court painter to Albert VII of Austria from 1609 until the archduke’s death in 1621. During that period, around 1617–19, he painted a canvas after which—at a later date—this print was created. The former now resides in the collection of the Alte Pinakothek, Munich. In many of his paintings—especially those with mythological themes—Rubens used his subject to reflect on contemporary political events. The Munich work depicts two forces—the ancient Greeks and the Amazons, a mythical tribe of courageous, bellicose women—in the heat of battle. In contrast to most other images of war created at the time, the victor is not apparent; rather, both forces are shown suffering losses, with deaths on both sides, which conveys a much more ambivalent message. Although the scene is not drawn from a specific literary source, Rubens probably studied Titian’s Battle of Spoleto and Leonardo da Vinci’s Battle of Anghiari closely, as the action in those two works is also centered on and around a bridge. In Rubens’s painting, however, there are no heroes. At the time he made it, the Netherlands’ truce with Spain, which had begun in 1609, was coming to a close (and would, in fact, end in 1621). The artist, himself a diplomat, was wary of renewed hostilities. Rubens sought to have an engraving made after the painting, and in 1623, Lucas Vostermann produced one from six plates, printed on separate sheets of paper and conjoined—the largest print published in the Low Countries to date, at one-third the size of the original canvas. The print in the Wellin Museum’s collection is a smaller version after Vostermann’s engraving. It was published under the direction of Gaspard Duchange at the end of the seventeenth century, perhaps in the years of unrest leading up to or during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–15), demonstrating the lasting relevance and popularity of Rubens’s composition. (SOURCE: Alcauskas, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, HONORED TRADITIONS, 2017)

Collections

European Art

Additional Details

Alternate Titles Battle of the Amazons
A Battle Between Greeks and Amazons

Exhibition History 2017
Clinton, NY (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College). "Innovative Approaches, Honored Traditions: The Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Five Years, Highlights from the Permanent Collection," September 9 - December 10, 2017 (cat. no. 30, illus.).

Provenance 1995: Hamilton College (Fred L. Emerson Gallery), by purchase from Robert Dance, Inc., New York.

Markings Watermark: [image cut off and difficult to discern] at lower center.

Published References Katherine D. Alcauskas, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, HONORED TRADITIONS: THE RUTH AND ELMER WELLIN MUSEUM OF ART AT FIVE YEARS, HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION (Clinton, NY: Wellin Museum of Art, 2017), p. 100.

Inscribed "Peint par Rubens" in plate at lower left; "A Paris chez Duchange Graveur ordinaire Roy rue Fromenteau vis a vis le Louvre; in plate at lower center" in plate at lower right; "SIC VICTORIA VICTIS / les Amazones habitoient la Scythie, C'etoient des femmes belliqueuses qui ayant perdu la pluspart de leurs maris a la guerre d'Asie proche le fleuve Thermodon, resolurent / de tuer ceux qu leur restoient et de faire elles memes la guerre. La fortune favorisa leur valeur, elles siemparerent d'une partie de l'Asie, et de la Thrace, elles ravagerent / la Grece, et entrerent en Europe. Elles furent enfin defaites par le Grecs sur le pont de Troye, le combat fut fort opiniatre. quoique la plus grande partie de leur armee / eut ete tailee en pieces elles resterent maitresses du champs de bataille" in plate at lower center.