# Boreas Abducting Oreithyia [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [RUBENS, Peter Paul]() - Date: 1601-1650 - Technique: Oil on wood, 146 x 140 cm ## Commentary Boreas Abducting Oreithyia c. 1615 Oil on wood, 146 x 140 cm Akademie der bildenden Künste, Vienna This painting depicts an episode from Ovid's Metamorphoses. In Greek mythology Boreas is the ruler of the north wind. He is old and has flowing grey locks and wings. He loved Oreithyia, the daughter of a legendary king of Athens and, against her will, carried her off to be his bride \(Met. 6:692-722\). He is shown flying away with the naked girl clasped firmly in his hands. Putti are present playing with snowballs. In Rubens's representation, the bodies fill the picture from one side to the other leaving no space for a sense of motion and flying. ## Related artworks - [A Forest at Dawn with a Deer Hunt]() - [Adoration of the Magi]() - [Adoration of the Magi]() - [Adoration of the Magi]() - [Adoration of the Shepherds]() - [Adoration of the Shepherds]() - [Albert and Nicolaas Rubens]() - [Alfonso d'Este, Duke of Ferrara]() - [Allegorical Glorification of King James I]() - [Allegorical Glorification of King James I]() - [Allegorical Glorification of King James I]() - [Allegorical Glorification of King James I]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()