This dark painting, attributed to the Dutch artist Adriaen Lievensz. van der Poel (c. 17th century), depicts the end of the Trojan War and features a family that links the myths and legends of Troy to the origin tales of ancient Rome. Within the shadowy darkness at the bottom left corner of the painting, the viewer can find the Trojan hero Aeneas, carrying his father on his back, and being trailed by his wife and son. According to ancient Greek myth, Aeneas was a demigod, born of the goddess Aphrodite, and it was she who encouraged Aeneas to gather up his family and flee as the Greeks began ransacking and burning the Trojan capital. The hero obeyed his divine mother and rushed to collect his elderly father, his frightened wife, and their young son while time remained to escape. Virgil (70-19 BCE), a poet from Rome, assumed Aeneas’ point of view and described the scene:
“So come, dear father, climb up onto my shoulders!
I will carry you on my back. This labor of love
will never wear me down. Whatever falls to us now,
we both will share one peril, one path to safety.
Little Iulus, walk beside me, and you, my wife,
follow me at a distance, in my footsteps.
…With that,
over my broad shoulders and round my neck I spread
a tawny lion’s skin for a cloak, and bowing down,
I lift my burden up. Little Iulus, clutching
my right hand, keeps pace with tripping steps.
My wife trails on behind. And so we make our way
along the pitch-dark paths, and I who had never flinched
at the hurtling spears or swarming Greek assaults—
now every stir of wind, every whisper of sound
alarms me, anxious both for the child beside me
and burden on my back.”
(The Aeneid, Book II, approximately lines 880-910)
It is this episode of Aeneas and his family fleeing from their burning homeland that Adriaen Lievensz. van der Poel re-creates in his artwork. The painting showcases the destruction of the city, with its structures set ablaze, relegating Aeneas’ family and other humans to the shadows. Unfortunately, the escape of Aeneas’ family did not go seamlessly. In the most famous account of the tale, that of Virgil, Aeneas’ wife became separated from the rest of the group and ultimately did not survive the sack of the city. Other versions existed, however, in which she did successfully survive alongside her husband. In this artwork, at least, the entire family is together in the frozen frame of time that is depicted on the canvas. After escaping the besieged city, the Trojan hero would begin his odyssey toward Italy, where, according to legend, Aeneas would become an ancestor of Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders of Rome.
Written by C. Keith Hansley
Sources:
- The Aeneid by Virgil, translated by Robert Fagles. New York: Penguin Books, 2006.
- https://rkd.nl/images/112950
