# Meleager and Atalanta [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [JORDAENS, Jacob]() - Date: 1651-1700 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 152 x 120 cm ## Commentary After the death of Rubens in 1640, Jacob Jordaens became the leading artist of the Southern Netherlands. He was primarily active in Antwerp, and his artistic aspirations did not extend quite so high as those of Rubens. Jordaens showed himself to be an uncomplicated member of the middle-class, and there is little room in his work for reflection or any feeling of transcendence. Although he never visited Italy, he was strongly influenced by Caravaggio. Traces of this influence are visible in the contrast between light and dark which serves to heighten the dramatic tension of his Meleager and Atalanta painted in 1618. The painting's subject is taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses. <P> <TABLE ALIGN=LEFT CELLPADDING=5 BORDER=1 WIDTH=320 BGCOLOR="\#99CCCC"> <TR VALIGN=MIDDLE><TD><IMG SRC="/support/gif/listen.gif" BORDER=0 VALIGN=MIDDLE> Suggested listening \(streaming mp3, 12 minutes\):<BR><A HREF="\#" onClick="w=window.open \('/music1/18\_cent/handel\_atalanta.html', 'newWin', 'scrollbars=yes,status=no,dependent=yes,screenX=0,screenY=0,width=350,height=350'\);w.opener=this;w.focus\(\);return true"><B>George Frideric Handel: Atalanta, Act 3 \(excerpts\)</B></A> </TD></TR></TABLE> ## Related artworks - [Adoration of the Shepherds]() - [Allegory of Fertility]() - [Allegory of Fertility]() - [Allegory of Fertility]() - [An Apostle]() - [Apostles Paul and Barnabas in Lystra]() - [As the Old Sang the Young Play Pipes \(detail\)]() - [As the Old Sang the Young Play Pipes]() - [Assumption of the Virgin]() - [Bearded Man Stepping Down]() - [Christ Driving the Merchants from the Temple]() - [Cleopatra's Feast]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()